Gash could feel the faint breeze against his face. The flag of the Seekers waved high above the walltops. It was high noon, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky, but the air was ominous and foreboding. The entire city was completely still, watching and waiting.

Civilians had been ordered to take what shelter they could; those standing on the battlements were the veteran Seekers, each armed with anti-air missiles. Not a single man spoke a word. They were completely silent, watching and waiting. Surface-to-air missile platforms lined the inner walls, eager for targets.

“The Seekers have always been skilled soldiers.” thought Gash. “Let’s hope today proves no different.”

The Seekers used their guns with a tactic that was ironically first developed during the Empire in the Early Wars. They were spaced in ranks, exactly half a pace to the left of the rank at their back. After the first rank had fired, they would swap places with the second rank, reload during the second round, step forward again, and the pattern would continue. It made for extremely brutal firepower in the heat of battle.

“Sir, some airbornes registering on-screen,” came Rennoth over the radio. He was monitoring them from Tact-Ops.

The sergeant standing adjacent to Gash heard the message, and gave him an anxious look.

“Sir …battle formations?”

Gash held out a hand.

“Hold on.”

Suddenly, out of the clouds came a massive, looming figure. It looked exactly like a -

“What the hell? Those aren’t any Imperial hoverships …binoculars, sergeant.”

He handed it over and Gash put it to his eyes. Startled, he thrust the pair of binoculars back into the sergeant’s hands and turned to the ranks.

“Guns down! All guns down! Paet and his boys are back!”

A sigh of relief emitted from the men as three other familiar-looking battleships came into view. One man standing nearby stooped down and hung his head, worn from the weight of his weapon and the burden of war. Gradually, a cheer erupted from the walls as the Seekers realized that the battle had already been won.

---

Gash tore through the crowd, which was transfixed at the sight of their own ships as one would be when seeing ghosts return to life. He raced down stairway, across the deserted city streets, and ran down the steep steps leading into the docks just as the four ships came to a stop in the landing zone.

Much to his surprise, the dragon was perched atop one of the ships. Every ship was badly damaged, most had a tear in the side from stray projectiles. Another one of the larger ships Gash could not even tell from a pile of scrap metal.

A ramp was laid, and Paet was the first to disembark. Followed by a few of his lieutenant officers. Followed by…

Gash looked as if he was seeing ghosts return to life, as well he should have.

“Well I’ll be! The dragoon himself, and Azel with him!”

Edge smiled as he greeted his friend.

“And Gash, my old friend, leader of the Seekers and commander of New Zoah? Should I address you with a military salute too?”

“For the sake of all of us, don’t. Well, this is quite the unexpected surprise! The Empire is gone again, but Edge still is not! Like old times, it would seem. Have any luggage I can carry for you?”

They laughed for awhile, and Gash continued.

“So few of you return; there are but four ships out of thirty.”

Paet answered sternly. “It was a fair trade for nearly three hundred Imperial ships.”

Gash nodded his consent.

“It is good to have you back. I ask that all of you attend a debriefing session in the Tact-Ops room tomorrow morning; Paet will show you its whereabouts later on. Don’t be late, though. There is important news that you all must hear.”

With that, he dismissed them, and they went their separate ways.

---

Evening found the entire city of New Zoah gathered in the docks. They were all there to honor those who had died. The docks seemed so quiet now, desolate and empty. There were sounds of soft singing, people singing old songs of hope, and grief. The quiet darkness was broken as candles were lit, and flowers were placed in tribute of lost lives.

Paet reflected on how sorry he felt for the city’s inhabitants, being caught up in war and death, which they should never had been concerned with. Which none of them should have ever been concerned with.

“Somewhere in this world,” he said softly to himself, “our right to live has gone awry.”

Edge, standing beside him, nodded his agreement.

They watched the flickering of the candles. The night suddenly seemed brilliant and beautiful, as it should seem. The children were laughing, playing, pointing at the colorful flowers that seemed to spring to life everywhere.

“But it is a pity; this city cannot last long.” Edge said in a distant voice.

“No, it can’t,” Paet agreed. “Do you ever wonder, Edge?”

“Wonder what?”

“All this fighting, all this death, and do you wonder? Is there even a promised land?”

Edge continued to watch the candles, and the flowers, and the children.

“No. Or …maybe there is. But not here though. Not for us.” Edge stated, motioning to the city wall around him.

“Indeed,” Paet said with a sigh. And then he said,

“But as long as these flowers are here, and as long as these lights are here…”

“There will always be hope,” Edge finished. “There will always be a new dawn, no matter what.”

“And you are the epitome of that, dragon rider.”

Edge shook his head.

“No, not I.”

He looked as if he was about to continue, but stopped himself, and smiled instead.

“I wasn’t meant to change this world. I’m only a guy. The dragon just happens to like me.”

Paet smiled back at him.

“Same here, it would seem.”

---

Edge stood on the balcony and stared at the stars that night, not realizing that Paet had also done so just days before. He watched them as they twinkled and shone on the city below them, beautiful yet distant. From behind him, Azel spoke in a quiet and dreamy voice.

“Edge…”

“Yes?”

“Do you like looking at the stars?”

“Yeah. They’re bright. They’re cheerful. Looking at them keeps me up.”

“What are stars?” she asked.

“Stars are… I don’t know. They’re lights in the sky, they help keep it bright at nighttime.”

“I know, but I mean… what are they?”

“I really don’t know… To be honest, Azel, I always thought they were other worlds far away.”

“Other worlds, Edge?” asked Azel, her voice filled with incredulity.

Edge glanced back at her. She was sitting motionless on the bed; her eyes were staring at him, wide with a strange curiosity. She resembled a human child more than anything else.

“That’s what I like to think,” he answered.

She nodded, as if just understanding.

“So…” she hesitated before speaking. “Does that mean that we live in a star too, Edge?”

“I… I never thought about it like that, Azel. I really don’t know.”

She appeared to be thinking, solving a problem in her head.

“I don’t think we live in a star,” she finally stated.

“Why not?”

“You said that stars are bright and cheerful, right? I don’t think we live in a cheerful star.”

Her voice was growing softer, gradually fading away.

“Oh, Azel…” Edge could not help but place his arms around her slender body. Her skin was soft to the touch.

He really did not understand her. Sometimes she was calm, stern, and unshakable by earth, wind, or fire. But at times like these, she was small, weak, and fragile. He held her even tighter, as if trying to protect her from the world. But he would not be able to protect her forever. It was a somber thing to realize, and Edge knew it.

“Azel…”

Suddenly he realized that she was completely motionless, her body lay still in his arms. He could feel her faint breaths against his chest. With a smile, he closed his eyes, and together they slept there until the break of dawn.

---

The next morning, Paet led them through the city and into the Holy District, explaining the designs and defenses of the city as he went. As they climbed up an indoor staircase onto the inner wall, he pointed to a wall behind them.

“See that door back there? It’s the most obvious one. We just passed through at least a dozen of them, all hidden. In an emergency they all slam shut, and they’re each four inches of pure steel. Nothing gets through.”

As they re-entered the sunlight, they discovered that they were now standing atop the enormous second wall of the city. From here, Edge saw that it became blatantly obvious that it was at least three times taller than the outer walls. He also noticed several large platforms extending from the walls. This seemed to be Paet’s cue to explain.

“Like I said, nothing gets through the stairwell, and the walls are way too high to climb. Those platforms are our SAM (surface-air missile) launchers. On the west wall alone there are at least a dozen and a half. All together, it’s more than enough to take out any airborne force, any size. As you can see, the stronghold is pretty unassailable by any method.”

After climbing down a stairwell similar to the previous one, they found themselves in the Holy District of New Zoah. Paet led them down the main street, to the enormous fortress which served as the Seeker’s headquarters, and then through numerous security checkpoints, and into the building.

Both Edge and Azel were dumbfounded as they were led through corridor after corridor, turning corner after corner, climbing up stairways again and again. Paet navigated the labyrinthine passages without any hesitation, and at last they came to double doors that looked identical to all the other ones in the building. Inside, Gash and the other Seekers had already arrived, and were seated yet again around the hologram. Paet, Edge, and Azel also took their places around the table.

“Captain Paet, reporting for debriefing, sir.”

Gash nodded.

“Thank you for coming today, Captain. We’ll keep it short today; there are other things to go over.”

“Yes sir.”

“Just one question: how many Imperials survived the battle?”

“No more than half a dozen, sir. They fled towards the southwest. We made no effort to pursue them.”

“So the Empire is no longer a sufficient threat to the Seekers?” “No sir, at least not for a few more years.”

Gash sighed.

“Thank you, Captain, that will be all. Now for some more important matters.”

He turned to the hologram and placed his finger on a figure roughly fifteen thousand rions (300 miles) to the southwest of the city.

“Edge, tell me what that looks like to you.”

Edge already knew what it was. After all, he had been in contact with Sestren for the past decade and a half.

“It would appear, at first glance, to be a mountain formation in the Garil Desert.”

“But is it?”

“No, of course not. It has been moving in the past few days. Mountains don’t move.”

Gash was still wondering how Edge could possibly know this when his fears were confirmed. “Commander Gash, it would logically seem to be a mass of bio-creatures.”

One of the Seekers sitting towards the back let out an involuntary curse. Captain Damad, sitting two seats to Paet’s left, was glaring furiously at the map. He was the one that broke the long silence.

“That’s shit. The whole damn thing’s twice the size of this entire city!”

“That’s easily five million bio-creatures…” Paet muttered distractedly, his eyes glued to the massive figure.

“That’s impossible!” someone else in the room exclaimed. “There can’t possibly be that many of them in a raiding party!”

At this last comment, Edge could not help but burst out laughing. He said to the man, “You fool! Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?! It is because there are so many of them that you cannot call them a raiding party in the first place!”

He stood up and addressed the entire room.

“This is no ‘raiding party’! Five million bio-creatures, airborne and ground-based, moving in formation towards us. This is an army. Sestren’s army, come from hell to destroy us all! And, no, they are not here to destroy this city, but to destroy us. Sestren has finally come to extinguish humankind once and for all!”

There was a long silence as the blow hit. The Seekers were all grim-faced as they realized their peril.

Damad spoke. “What do we do about this, Gash?”

Gash, who had remained silent this entire time, answered.

“There is not much we can do. We will have to evacuate, to escape from the city before it is too late.”

To this, Edge replied. “As I said, they are not after the city, they are after our lives! If you run, they will chase you to the ends of the earth!”

“Do you have another plan?” Gash asked. Already he realized how familiar everything sounded, and already he knew what Edge’s response would be.

Edge said, slowly and silently, “There is a way. But it will require great sacrifices, and victory is not ensured even in the end.”

“Great sacrifices?”

“Many of us shall give our lives to preserve the lives of the few. And this city.”

Gash understood his plan, knew what he was planning to do. Paet also understood; he closed his eyes and shook his head, plainly filled with regret that things had to be this way. Azel, too, let out a sudden cry of dismay.

At length, Gash spoke.

“Why wasn’t Sestren terminated last time, Edge? What happened? What did he tell you?”

“It didn’t work, Gash. The Heresy Dragon could not foresee it…”

“Foresee what?”

Edge looked up at him.

“Foresee that I wouldn’t be the one to end Sestren. And that it wouldn’t be the dragon to do so either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gash… I’m not the hope you’re looking for. I’m not a messiah. I can’t break the will of the ancients, not me. But with some help, I can buy all of you some time, and believe I can fight against Sestren one more time.”

Gash bowed his head respectfully, as did everyone else in the room.

“Very well, then, Edge. You have four days.”

Four days to live, Gash didn’t add.