WE MARCH - 14 years ago

“It's not working sir,” said one of the tactical advisors at HQ.

“I can see that,” replied Trent, trying his best to hide his worries from his voice. The flanking squads barely added any progress to their plan. All bets were on Teph and Beth to cause a stir in the enemy’s flanks, but nothing came out, nothing more than a delayed loss to Morshina.

“What should we do now?” he asked the group of men surrounding the main map that was centered for everyone to get a good view of the battle’s status. They all shared confused looks, they tried to get each other to speak, but no one spoke, just silence.

“Well, you guys are a waste of time. I am sitting here busting my ass to come up with a strategy and none of you bastards has a suggestion.” His tone grew sarcastic and annoyed. Taking a deep breath he raised his arms in the air and slammed the meeting table, making everyone grow alarmed by the situation.

“Now, that I got your attention! Will any of you ‘strategists’ give me any suggestion unto how we win this battle”

“We retreat sir!” said of the men, he looked young to be in attendance of such an important meeting, yet he was there, regardless. “We announce a full-scale retreat and drop back into the country, at least there we are on familiar ground, we could even call for reinforcements from the police force!”

Trent looked at the young man and clapped. He extended both his arms towards him and clapped, slowly his clapping grew faster before, finally, he stopped and said

“You want us to have an all-out brawl in the streets of Morshina, do you have any idea why we are fighting on the border, you dumbass, huh?! ” The man cowered back and sank into his chair embarrassed by his statements.

The room, once again, fell silent. Lit by only a single light bulb that hung in the middle. For some reason whenever anyone got quiet, it felt darker than usual. Trent got both his hands from the table and dropped back into his chair, which squeaked on the motion. He let out an audible sigh before he got up and walked outside the Tent. As he reached the exit he spoke in a loud and calm voice “Our brothers die, while we take our time to figure out a plan, in five minutes I want to come back into this tent and you all better have a suggestion or you will join them down there. I mean it” with that he left them all to think.

****

Jackson got off his charion and decided to take a short walk on the barren land that stretched beyond him. Strange how the advanced country of Morhsina was a five-hour walk away from here. Ten years ago you’d find Jack believing in no land being on Mol, other than his home country. Now he stood out here - waiting for his scouts to return. All, the while, his brothers are dying on the field behind him. Please god, let it be true.

He clenched his fist and walked forward. Nothing, all of what he saw was simple, plain. nothing, just an empty piece of land that might house. His feet crunched bits of rocks as walked through them. The wind hissed an eerie tune to his ears, brushing off the dust as it occasionally passed him. The ground, was perfectly flat, except for the bumps of rocks that sometimes appeared in the distance. He continued walking, anxious unto when his scouts would appear.

He heard something buzz in his pockets and so he checked what it was, the communicator was ringing with a message. It read:

Damnation has fallen on us all. Our plan failed jack. It was from Trent back at HQ. We have no choice but to request troops from you Jack. I am sorry for my use of language, but you are not requested, but ordered. I know you more than anyone else my friend and I know that something has been bugging you since yesterday. I can feel it, but you have to put that aside and focus on my order, send three thousand men from your side, IMMEDIATELY. Trent out.

He tried to reply but could not, he furiously dropped the communicator on the ground, it broke on impact. He looked back at his charion that stood in front of his army his officers beside it, they appeared to be having a discussion about today's events. They all wore Jackson's colors. His army was infamous for its black defying colors that went against what a normal Morshan officer would wear to war.

“Sir, the communicator, what happened?” asked Morl - 2nd battalion leader.

“Nothing” replied Jack in a cold tone.

“The communicator was designed to exchange messages between us and HQ, did anything happen?” tried to press 3rd battalion leader Bolt.

“Did the sun hit you or something?” said Jack meeting the man’s eyes, “nothing! Means! NOTHING! Got that FUCKFACE?”

“What do we do now?” More asked again.

“We wait” he answered the question and walked away before he got questioned again.

****

Trent hit the meeting table hard, shaking the cups of water that sat on it. What is he thinking? Could there be something wrong and I didn’t notice it?

“Why is he acting rogue? And he chose the worst time to do it too!” Trent walked around the meeting table fuming. “WHAT NOW?!” he screamed at his team of tacticians.

“We wait!” said one of them - he was the boy from earlier. “We have to trust Jack’s decision, even though he is being stubborn in the time we need him most. We cannot do anything but, wait.” The other men nodded, it was either because they couldn't think of any other option to choose from or it was them actually genuinely agreeing with the young man. Trent had no choice, but to agree as well.

****

Jackson was relieved, he began to make out dust boiling in the distance. His scout ws pushing the charion to its limit to try and get back as soon as possible. A couple of minutes later the man arrived.

“Where is General Jack,” he asked, as he scrambled between the battalion leaders.

“Here,” said Jack to the man.

“Sir,” the man said, “You were right, Mon marched with everything he had to confuse us about his numbers. He chose this day specifically because the sun was out at our direction and dust has been forming over the past weeks. We couldn’t confirm how many of his men stayed back at camp to act as reserves and that is why he tricked us. But, he left 500 men back at camp, what should we do about them.”

“Rest soldier and leave everything else to me, you have done well to get here with the speed you had, tell me, where are your comrades,” asked Jack.

“About them” the man replied looking down “they couldn’t make it, we were intercepted while we were on our way back, but luckily I survived. I am sorry”

“It is alright,” Jack told the man as he grabbed him by the soldiers “you may have lost your brothers out there” he turned his head towards where Mon’s camp was, “But, you saved thousands of others.” “Take this man to rest,” he told his assistants.

“Thank you, sir, may glory be with you” The scout saluted and was escorted back to be treated for a wound on his shoulder that Jack just noticed as the scout turned his back.

“With us, all” Jackson whispered. “Send word to every man in this army, WE MARCH, NOW!!” his voice bellowed through the quirt land, and men from behind him ran to deliver his order.