Unforseen Consequences

[Zerstorendar]

Location: The Eternal Palace of Zerstorendar, Sparring Room
Main Characters:
-The Zanekriegerlich Helgrund Klaitus- Supreme Commander of the Zerstorendarian Army
-The Blitzmordlich Sindri- Supreme Commander of the Zerstorendarian Special Police/Special Forces
-The Sternkriegerlich- The aggressive Supreme Commander of the Zerstorendarian space marine corps
-The Sternsieglich- The Supreme Commander of the Zerstorendarian Navy.

The Zanekriegerlich Helgrund Klaitus attacked furiously, cutting bright patterns through the air with his humming energy blade. His opponent, the Blitzmordlich Sindri, stayed on the defensive, parrying with his pair of silent, shorter blades. Instead of the weapons being comprised of pure energy, they used a less apparent power sheath that made the weapons flicker. The irregular defensive webs that Sindri wove while Klaitus’ bright blue weapon illuminated the air around them made the deadly duel pleasing to the eye. It could even be described as beautiful. Such is the nature of deadly things.

Klaitus was the supreme commander of the Zanekreiger, the Zerstorendarian Army. A career soldier starting off as a heavily enchanced grunt like all of his peers, he worked his way up through the ranks on merit and ability alone. A superb general, he was also a superb fighter. His enhanced body was far more powerful than it looked, capable of punching through some metals, and his skill at arms had not slipped over the years. He was fast, strong, highly skilled, experienced, confident, well armed, and merciless in his attack. To describe him as a merely formidable opponent would be the height of folly.

Except to the Blitzmordlich. Sindri had many of the enhancements Klaitus had, minus a few and plus some more powerful ones. It amounted to his being at least as physically capable with only slightly less experience on his side, and considerably more cunning. Like Klaitus, Sindri started as a low-level killer from the ranks of the Blitzmord. His line of work and fighting style was, as expected, radically different. Sindri was perhaps not as strong as Klaitus, but was faster, more agile, and doubtless more skilled with his weapons. Perfection in killing (among other things) was something every member of the Blitzmord aspired to, and Sindri was no exception. He was a killer with the perfect balance of every advantage he desired.

Klaitus continued his relentless offence, and Sindri continued to wait for an opening. Both were just warming up, and neither was going to be caught off guard. Sindri circled Klaitus in order to use the advantage of his superior bladework. Sindri was patient, he kept his balance, he watched for errors and oversights on the part of Klaitus, who was yet to make any errors at all. Less skilful his opponent may be, that was still impressing when considering that the Blitzmordlich had essentially surpassed the upper limits of superhuman ability. If anything was testament to his ability it was that he had survived the Zanekriegerlich’s onslaught for more than a few moments. When two fighters are so highly skilled, the fight can easily go either way. He continued to circle, his foe continued to attack. Exhaustion was not going to come into play here, so patience was the name of the game.

Helgrund grimaced as he increased his attack speed and power. His blade now left bright blue trails behind it as it arced through the air, and Sindri narrowing his eyes in concentration as he continued to defend. Helgrund lashed out with a foot, and Sindri avoided it, moving in for his first attack toward Helgrund’s neck. The stronger Zanekriegerlich struck the Blitzmord’s arm with a vicious palm, prompting a grunt and another attack toward his upper leg, which was narrowly parried by the burning energy weapon. The two closed the space between them and began trading much faster attacks, any one of which were potentially a killing blow.

To an outside observer, this would appear to be a fight to the death. To the Sternsieglich, watching from the shadows of the semi-illuminated room, that was exactly what it seemed like. Being a naval officer himself, he was not remotely in the league of his three brethren in close quarters combat, and he usually contended himself to observe their sparring matches. However, this was different. There was no restraint, absolutely no concern for the safety of one’s opponent. It was easily apparent even to him that the fight would result in the death of one of its participants as soon as an error was made that the other could capitalise on. Sweat beaded his forehead, perhaps more so than the supremely conditioned killers duelling in the middle of the vast palace combat chamber. Surely they would not kill each other?

The Sternkriegerlich, supreme commander of the Zerstorendarian space marines, felt rather the same. A fiery individual and expert close combat fighter himself, he was no stranger to this room or the fighting capabilities of the attacking men. What he did find strange was the intensity with which they fought. It was as if they were genuine enemies; the Sternkriegerlich furrowed his brow as he recognised many of Sindri and Klaitus’ attacks as precisely targeted killing blows. His fists clenched. Blasted, Tereza-damned Xenonians, this was not right!

The two fighters had not slowed down even the slightest; thrusting, slashing and parrying in a cloud of blue trails and silver flashes. The Blitzmordlich appeared to be exhausting his fearsome repertoire of techniques and tricks, but only he was aware of how many options he had left. He was looking desperate, but Klaitus knew better than that: Sindri was never desperate.

He did, however, make mistakes. Klaitus left a slight opening for a lunge toward his throat once more, which Sindri took. Moving only so much that Sindri would have to slightly overextend himself in the process, Klaitus positioned himself to take advantage of the one opening he needed. His hand latched onto Sindri’s attacking arm, twisting it and thrusting his brightly glowing weapon toward his opponent’s heart. Sindri allowed his delight to reach his face.

The Sternsieglich and Sterkriegerlich gasped and growled respectively.

Klaitus had fallen into Sindri’s trap, and it was all the chance Sindri needed. Regaining the balance that Helgrund assumed he had lost, Sindri twisted to avoid the blow, moving in even closer to Klaitus and slashing toward his throat once more. This time, there was no glowing blue blade to deflect.

The Zanekriegerlich’s reinforced flesh provided very little resistance against the weapon and strength of his killer. His neck was cut cleanly, and his head fell to the floor, wound sizzling. The body followed soon after.

The Sternkriegerlich leapt forward and ran to the corpse of his brother, as did the Sternsieglich after a moment’s shocked hesitation. However, nothing could be done: Klaitus was dead.

The Blitzmordlich was looking down at the body dispassionately, and he died with the same expression as the Sternkriegerlich drew his own weapon and exacted vengeance in the blink of an eye.

The two Xenonians present of the six in the palace stepped forward, coolly ignoring the furious Sternkriegerlich staring at them with his weapon unsheathed. Both Xenonians looked almost exactly the same, same build, size, ethnicity and skintone. The most remarkable thing about them, however, were their eyes. Both were different colours, one red one green. They were expressionless and under normal circumstances quite off-putting. The Sternkriegerlich, however, demanded answers:

“You Tereza-cursed fuckers, you swore this wouldn’t happen! Explain yourselves, or you’ll be busy finding new bodies while I hunt the rest of you down and crush your entire Tereza-damned civilisation!�
One of the Xenonians responded blankly: “We swore nothing, we calculated that this event was unlikely and informed you of the risk of abnormal standard deviation due to the unique nature of the two subjects.�

Before the spitting Sternsieglich could respond with the fist of his choice, the real Zanekriegerlich and Blitzmordlich approached the group.
“Impressive, though unsatisfying�, stated Helgrund.
“I found it perfectly satisfying�, mused Sindri to the annoyance of Klaitus.
“They weren’t us, it wasn’t a real simulation of what would actually happen�.
“Actually-“ began one of the Xenonians before Sindri continued:
“I was under the impression that these replica’s would be very accurate in simulating our abilities. Isn’t that right?� he asked, looking to the Xenonian who had spoken.
The other one answered: “They are not replicas as such, but yes, they are perfect in that regard.�

The Sternkriegerlich was not satisfied: “Ridiculous! They were not supposed to die!�
“What else were we supposed to do with them?�, inquired Helgrund, “They were essentially clones�.
“Keep them! I wanted to fight them myself!�
“I’m sure the Xenonians could provide the same service for you, if you wanted.�
“Deal with those hellspawned Tereza-cursed scum? Pah!�, spat an obviously offended Sternkriegerlich before storming off. The Sternsieglich sidled up to Helgrund, smiling widely.
“He assured me you were going to win that fight. In case you’re wondering, yes, he bet quite heavily on you.�
Klaitus glared at him.

Blitzmordlich Sindri had other things on his mind as he approached the Xenonians, and gestured toward the corpses as he inquired:
“You can repair those, right?�