The Crimson Field

Chapter 4

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." As he struggled against the bonds, he knew that everything would not be fine. "Let me go, dammit!" The man who seemed to be leader whispered "Soon." He felt a sudden, sharp prick on his skin. "What are you doing?" he screamed, as the syringe was removed. "Fetch the package, please", ordered the leader. With a shock, Borg realized that he knew that voice. "You, you...", but the sedative had already begun to take effect.

Borg woke up with a start. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized that he had been having a nightmare.

The same nightmare, again.

He wasn't afraid of the war, he wasn't afraid of dying. But his dreams, they scared the hell out of him. He walked out of his tent.

They were still in domestic territory. After defeating the initial Quack invasion force a few weeks ago, Hedge were going on an offensive of their own. While the main army, under Basebond's command was moving slowly and carefully, Borg's forces had been given the task of quickly garrisoning and re-fortifying key border cities, and driving out the pockets of Quack soldiers that were still holding out. Until now, they hadn't encountered much resistance.

Borg had denied the hospitality of the closest city governor. He knew that many people were homeless over the recent war, and there simply weren't enough resources to host a large army. Their tanks and planes had been housed in the city factories and airbases, with a skeletal guard. The rest of the soldiers were camping in the nearby woods.

The soldier on guard duty near his tent was bothered to see that Borg wasn't asleep. "Sir if I may, I have observed that you haven't slept much over all the past few nights that I have been on guard duty. You won't be as effective in combat if you're suffering from sleeplessness."

Borg turned to freeze her with an icy glare. "If I need your opinion, soldier, I will ask for it." She bit her lip. This is why military school taught you to never question your superiors.

As he turned to leave, he saw a scout running back to camp. Clearly, he had some important news. The scout saw him, saluted, and stood in attention.

"Well soldier, what news?" he asked.

"We spied a quack encampment only a few miles from here, sir", the scout replied. "Their strength is approximately 100 people, and they seem to be in a pretty miserable shape." He wasn't surprised. Separated from their supply lines, they would be forced to hunt and scavenge for food and water. And once the ammunition would run out, even that would become difficult.

The task of clearing enemy camps was usually left to his subordinates. However, he looked towards the tent that housed the Borg Collective. Twenty elite robot soldiers designed by him, and he was eager to test them in combat. Having summoned all the collective and fifty regular soldiers, he set out in the direction of the Quack camp.

The Quack soldiers were faring even worse than he had assumed. They didn't even have tents, and were strewn about in the open. A few unfortunate ones even lacked sleeping bags. Their clothes were little better than rags. They had stationed a solitary guard, but he was more interested in tending to the fire than actual scanning the perimeter of the clearing for threats.

He mounted a suppressor on his pistol, took careful aim, and fired. The man fell right into a pile of dead leaves.

Shit.

As the camp began to wake up, Borg motioned towards his units to start firing. The few Quack soldiers who still hadn't run out of ammunition started firing back, but given that the Error troops were hidden behind the thick forest cover, their accuracy was hopelessly off.

Seeing her troops being cut down, the Quack commander quickly called out, "We surrender!"

"Drop your weapons", Borg called out.

The Quack soldiers looked towards their commander, and then dropped their weapons and raised their hands as she nodded.

"Make preparations to arrest them and carry them back to camp", the Error second in command began to call out to his subordinates.

"No"

"Eh, excuse me sir?" he turned to see Borg had a wild smile on his face. "Kill them all", Borg commanded.

"Sir, we can't do that, they have surrendered! It's against the rules of war!" the man started to panic. Borg ignored him. The drones, on receiving Borg's command, immediately moved into position, and started firing.

"Wait, stop! It's against the rules of war!" the man was shouting, but to no avail. The Borg collective answered to Borg alone. In about half a minute, all the Quack soldiers were dead. "Now", Borg said, turning to his second in command, the maniacal grin intact "You disobeyed a direct order. You know the punishment for that, don't you?"

"Wait, sir, I..." the man couldn't complete his sentence before Borg shot him. The Error soldiers looked shocked at this turn of events. "Well?" Borg addressed the robots, "Kill them all." The platoon was no match for the Borg collective.

All of a sudden, Borg felt a searing pain in his head, and staggered back as if he had been punched. "Wait no! Stop!" he yelled, but it was too late. He rushed in to check on his second in command. His eyes were open, but unseeing. Dead.

He felt faint as the horror of it all finally hit him. He had murdered a hundred and fifty people in cold blood. His legs felt like they couldn't support the weight of his body. He collapsed next to a tree, buried his face in his hands, and started to weep.

From some distance away, a man in black had been observing everything. His hood was drawn low over his eyes, and it was impossible to see behind the Mythic mask, but his facial muscles gave the impression that he was smiling.