The Battle

[HoD Bch 0]

With practiced stealth, they crept upon their prey. Silently they worked through the last trees of the forest seeking to spy their victims in the clearing beyond.

 

There the fools were, chattering away oblivious to their own doom. The woman was stoking the fire with her back to the forest, and the man was intent in some menial task next to her: Easy targets, hardly worth the effort.

 

But even the most effortlessly caught prey could put up a fight, and the two hunters were prepared for this. Val looked to his left to catch the eye of his eager partner. As he caught his glance, he gave a quick, decisive signal, and the two young men sprang into an instant run.

 

With vibrant battle cries announcing their strength and imminent victory, they flew upon their unsuspecting victims. Limbs flying, muscle roping against muscle, the fight ensued.

 

But then something nobody expected happened. In a few seconds that were both instantaneous and eternal, aliens broke into their clearing and fired weapons upon them. The man, Messner, fell first, flying on top of his battle partner, gaining him a brief and terrifying moment longer to live before he too was shot unconscious. Bch had just enough time to register that starship weapons were being used before she and her opponent also fell.

 

It was not the battle they had planned.