(Back in the office)

  “It was all over in just a few minutes”, Higgins recounted, “Formation was already broken and they closed the gap before we could regroup. They fought like nothing I’d ever seen. They did battle individually, but always had each other covered. And they were brutal but quick and clean. Like a Berserker that could still think right. And the scariest part was, I barely think I heard a single spell cast by them.”

  Aeriliya was aware she was treading in unsteady ground with the next question, “If they were so brutal, how did you survive.”

  Every head in the office craned to look at her as she practically dared to voice her question. Aeriliya felt highly on edge, but she remained resolute.

  “We surrendered”, Higgins said as if it were obvious.

  “Coward”, bellowed several of the Captains, “You soldiers were taught to never falter in front of the enemy!”

  The shaken soldier snapped to his feet, “And what would you have done in our place?! We were soundly routed, picked apart and brought to almost nothing. It was the only option if we wanted to get out alive”, after Higgins calmed himself he looked faraway again, “But after that, we almost wished they had done us in.”

  “What did they do to you”, the elven woman gently enquired. The Captains still looked unimpressed with her, but her gentle questioning helped Higgins to relax slightly.

  “After we surrendered, the fighting stopped almost immediately. But they didn’t restrain us. They brought us a little further into the forest clearing and… and… t-they got the Brigadier General.”

  The entire room was left stunned for a minute, “But Hammond was behind you all! He remained outside the forest, didn’t he? Are you sure about what you saw?”

  “I’m not crazy”, Higgins claimed, “I know what I saw.”

  (Back in the forest)

  Indeed, there was Hammond. The face was heavily wounded, but everyone could easily recognize the uniform and that ridiculous mustache he was always grooming. Though the man was a blowhard it broke many of the men to see their Brigadier General in the spectacle their enemy had him in. Hammond and all his high command were up in the trees, tied to the branches with some kind of metal wire. Their faces wide with terror, like a collection of once living chandeliers. The wire had them splayed out, their arms and legs broken at angles that shouldn’t be possible. But the stomach of the Imperial’s twisted when they heard a ragged moan from Hammond’s bloodied mouth. They weren’t dead, they were just tortured and hung up in the trees to watch their army be slaughtered before their half dead eyes.

  The men were given no time to even process the sight before a small group of the faceless soldiers approached them with armfuls of spade shovels. Guns were trained on roughly less than three hundred of what remained of the original force of two thousand that entered the forest. The faceless men dropped the shovels in front of them and one merely said, “Dig.”

  It took days and hundreds of holes, but eventually the Imperial soldiers were told to stop. The men were resigned to their fate. This was the end.

  “You may bury your dead.”

  (Back in the office)

  “They allowed you to bury the men they killed”, asked the Judge.

  Higgins nodded, “Couldn’t tell you why, but they let us collect one identifier from each body and then we buried them all.”

  “Did anyone try to fight back,” one of the Lieutenants asked.

  “A couple. But they were shot so quickly there wasn’t time to react”, Higgins looked ready to cry.

  Finally Hardstriker approached the man and told him to sit down. With a clenched hand, the Judge turned back towards the Officers, “I’m sure I don’t need to explain just how volatile this situation is and could become. We have a terrorist organization with enough martial might to bring an army to heel.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  An officer raised his hand, “Judge, if I may ask, if these terrorists are so dangerous, shouldn’t such a matter be handled by the military?”

  “We have reason to believe these terrorists were largely recruited within the Empire itself. Criminals, Dissidents and the like. So there’s a decent chance they would have no issue attacking civilians as well as the military”, Hardstriker pounded a fist against the desk which made everyone sit straighter, “Which is why you are being called in to assist. From what Higgins and the rest of the strike force have told us, while this enemy is dangerous and their numbers are unknown, it’s likely they wouldn’t be so brazen as to attack when we are alert and heavily fortified. It is by direct order of the Emperor himself that you are to remain vigilant. If there is so much as a whisper of a petty criminal that hasn’t been seen before, you are to take note. Citizen identification is to be double and triple verified and raids upon certain locations will be come more common as time goes on.”

  At the mention of orders from the Emperor, even Aeriliya who had nowhere near the responsibilities of the rest felt her heart skip a beat. One Captain, either braver or more stupid than the rest, stood up, “But Judge, with the citizens becoming as restless as they are with the martial law and the new expansion campaign, how will we know where to look? Besides, you have not even said who these people are, or any person of interest to look for.”

  Hardstriker’s face was stony at the man’s questioning, “There are certain details about these terrorists that are classified and they shall remain so.

  Further instruction on how to approach this situation and whom to report what was given. The Judge dismissed everyone and Aeriliya was about to follow along when she heard, “Sergeant Carnelis, a moment if I may?”

  A few of the Captains still in the room whipped their heads back at hearing the request of the lowest ranking officer. Hardstriker made a sweeping motion with his hand and the door brushed close enough to Aeriliya that she felt the wind as the door closed in the Captain’s faces. The elven woman approached the desk and stood ramrod straight, wondering if she was in trouble.

  “Sergeant, I’m sure you noticed that you were the outlier in this briefing?”

  Aeriliya nodded and quirked a delicate eyebrow, “Judge, I don’t understand, I handle organized crime cases, I haven’t been a part of the military for over seven years.”

  Hardstriker, handing her a binder with a military sigil, “Perhaps not, Sergeant Carnelis, but you’re the only one I can ask for help.”

  Aeriliya wasn’t sure why, but rather than anxiety, she could feel true fear pooling in her chest.

  Hardstriker interjected, “Sergeant, you were asked to this briefing because you bring a rather…. Unique perspective to this investigation”, the Judge looked at Higgins while talking to her, “The Specialist, under my orders left out a piece of his story.”

  “M-Ms. Carnelis”, Higgins trembled as he approached her with another file in his hands, “You were also part of the Anti-Demon Inquisitors, yes?”

  Brushing her hand over the rapier attached to her hip, “I had a part to play within that division”, returning her gaze to the officer, “But I assume we aren’t here to discuss the past.”

  As soon as she said that, Higgins’ eyes became even more haunted and distant. Oddly enough this was the calmest the man had seemed since Aeriliya stepped into the office. Slowly shaking his head, Higgins leveled those disturbed eyes at her, “No, Sergeant Carnelis, that is exactly what we’ve come to discuss. The past has come to kill us all.”

  Higgins picked up where he left off, about how the enemy gave them shovels. Higgins closed his eyes as small tears trailed down his face, “But then he appeared.”

  (Back at the forest)

  The Imperial troops finished burying their dead and any would-be resistance from their remaining force. They stood surrounded by the faceless men, sure that they would soon follow the rest of their comrades. This whole operation was a disaster from the start. Facing an unknown enemy who withstood their bombardment, stalked them the whole way through, destroyed their leadership and ensured any chance at fighting back once the real battle started was completely out of the question.

  Suddenly, there was a shift in the stance of their enemy. They all stood at attention, drew their misshapen, triangular knives,and held them over their hearts. The Imperial troops flinched at first, thinking the faceless men were going to kill them next, but they didn’t move. The men were confused at this sudden change in attitude. For no reason, the hair on Higgins’ neck was standing up. It was like what he felt before his unit was ambushed just a few moments earlier, but this ran even deeper. Higgins had a deep sense that something was watching him. The Shield Bearer was standing behind the front of the crowd, and the faceless men weren’t singling him out, but something in him just knew.

  “You’ll do”, a deep voice simply uttered.

  Whipping around in shock, there was another enemy behind him. He just seemingly appeared from nowhere and the Imperials all withdrew in shock. Unlike the others, this one had a mask with the face of an unsmiling man. Higgins could barely see through the eye slits, but he caught a glimpse of the man’s yellow eyes. He could feel them, as if seeing every physical and metaphorical piece of him.

  “I want you to go back to the Capitol. And I want you to tell anyone with true authority that the Hatchetman intends to finish his work.”

  With those fateful words, Higgins felt his mouth run dry.