Part One of The Battle Lore Improvement (+1 for snappy title) I remember running. So much running. And the blood. The streets were filled with it. Our city was built tall and strong and had been a beacon for civilisation across the stars but over the decades humanity had spread further away and my home became dilapidated and forgotten. The spire still stood and people still thrived but we were to be a side note in history. I wish we had remained that way. We had been celebrating the five hundredth year of the city’s first foundations being laid. As a member of the City Guard I stood back and watched as he feasts were devoured and our Mech force paraded down the streets. The crowds cheered and laughed enjoying the festival. I was ten minutes away from finishing my shift and joining in with the festivities when they came. If I had finished my shift I wouldn’t be here now. Huge white pods the size of large houses powered down. I looked up and saw them. I shouted out. People turned and saw them the festivities were over. The city guard ran over to the cannons myself included. I leapt into the nearest cannon and started firing whilst below me the crows started running but the huge mechs and tables caused the crowds to move painfully slowly. I started firing at the pods but no matter how many shot we took we didn’t even dent them. Then they returned fire. Our cannons were shredded. Our people disintegrated. I fell out of my cannon just as it was hit. I was flung across the ledge and almost slid off the building onto the ground below. The pods smashed down. Buildings were obliterated as they powered down destroying everything they hit. They landed in the middle of the festival destroying almost all of our Mechs and killing hundreds if not thousands. The pods sprung open and out stepped figures dressed in gleaming white armour reminiscent of Knights from the old days of earth. But this armour ripples and flowed. It looked more like fabric. Seeing a possible weak point we opened fire. The shells we fired bounced of hitting more buildings including the one we were on top off. As the building started to fall we ran and hurled ourselves off the edge grappling across towards the adjacent building. Most of us made it. Below the Knights rounded up the civilians surrounding them and shooting escapees with pure white beams. We hung their watching. Stuck. The knights were easily seven or eight feet tall towering over everyone. One of them stepped forward. He was different to the others, with red crosses across his armour in comparison to the plain armour of the others. He looked up at us. There were around fifty of us hanging onto the building. He signalled to one of his men. They aimed what looked like snipers up at us. “Jump” I yelled. I was petrified. They shot. We woke in a cell. Well only thirty of us did, the rest were mounted outside as a warning. That day I Learnt what had happened. The attackers were called the Knights Templar, I recalled the name from somewhere, and we still didn’t know why they had attacked. The women and children who had survived had been taken to camps. The men were split into two groups. One group was publicly shot. The other sent to work as slaves for the knights. The thirty of us who had survived the jump and the warnings had been locked in cells of threes heavily guarded by the Knights with two or three knights per one of us. A few other city guard had survived and were joining us in cells. Five days later my cell plotted an escape with the others. The guards on duty were getting bored and had left for a break leaving only 10 Templars for around 60 of us. We were still outclassed bt we had to try. We grabbed a gun as they passed and shot out the doors. We charged out firing rapidly at them. In the end we killed one before they captured most of us. Three escaped. Seven others were taken into the squared. All of the prisoners were forced to watch as they burned. The message was clear. Don’t try to run. Twenty days with limited food under constant guard. We still had no idea what they wanted, but we found out that there were only two hundred of them. Then on the Twenty first day everything changed. Nothing seemed different but towards midday several of the Guards on duty collapsed and died. No alarm was sounded. We saw five figures dressed in black but with the same flowing armour. The first one had a large silver insignia on his chest plate. They crept along taking out all of the remaining guards in absolute silence. They scared me more than the Knights in white. The skill and stealth shown was scary. Once all the guards were dead they broke open the cells, again silently, we crept out anxiously. Dax stepped forwards bravely, “Who are you?” he whispered. The leader stepped forwards. Like the Knights he was easily eight feet tall towering over us. “We are the Shadow Templar’s the scum who attacked you are the Knights Templar and they were hunting for us, it is our fault they came and for that we are sorry.” This revelation at least brought some answers to our desperate situation. The leader continued “We are here to rid your planet of the filth that invaded it” “What five of you,” Dax burst out. The Leader smirked “No there are twenty of us, and you.” The statement hung in the air they wanted us to help them to kill the seemingly invincible soldiers who has crush shot and burned so many of our friends. I don’t know what made me do it I still don’t to this day but I stepped forward. “I’ll help you”
