"Err, General? A-are you alright?" Asked Adjutant Quintus as he held up his flashlight revealing a rusting rotten mess in the dark. Old, slabs of steel and stone lay in piles, all warped and ruined beyond recognition.
I did not speak as I struggled against the pain in my wheezing chest. I looked up in the empty night sky, seeing what this place once was. A citadel of might, piercing the heavens with its majesty. A dream made manifest in gold and light.
This place, this Citadel was once the pride of our people, now it is but a shell. I move on. I feel my way along the wall, looking for clues, looking for signs that no eye can reveal. Quintus the ever reliable, follows like a waddling cub.
I stop, a section feels different. I pause, unsure.
"Tell me... do you have any memories of life before the war, Quintus?" I ask him.
He delays his response.
"No, sir. I was born after the war started."
"Hmph, lucky."
"Lucky? Sir how was I ever lucky?"
"You don't know how we really were in those last years before the war. We were decadent, we were arrogant. Nothing but sheltered fools, drowning in our pride and wealth."
I sighed.
"Sometimes I stop and think. 'Maybe the war was what we needed'."
"Sir? Is that not a selfish notion? No one should have to die to change the world."
"This is why you're lucky. You're not the same creature we once were."
I pushed against the wall and the stone slab gave way. We hear cogs ticking away like clockwork and then a slab of stone retracts into the wall and slides down, opening the way. I look in with Quintus' light illuminating the way.
I stood there, pleased that the ancient system still worked. I looked back at Quintus, his young brown eyes filling with questions. I sighed as I beckoned him along with a wave of my hand. Thus into the dark we walked.
I looked around at ancient, familiar walls of green and grey. These lonely silent halls made me think. They made me reflect, curse them. They brought me back to bloody days of ignominy where fire and death reigned.
My feet grew heavy, my soul weighed me down with regret. Eventually my feet dragged to a halt. My burden too heavy, mind weighing down against my skull with thought. Quintus stopped and turned to face me.
"General?" He asked, worry showing in his young baby blue eyes.
My heart ached with burden, I dropped to my knees, heart racing, blood pumping.
"General!" He calls as he dashes to my aid.
There he held me as I struggled to even breathe.
"Listen, kid. You'll never hear another say this. We were fools to think we could conquer the stars do not be like us." I groan through endless, debilitating pain.
I give him my keys.
"Do what you must" I squeeze the words out before darkness takes me.