Reclaiming the Rising Sun

There were many days in which I wished to be forgotten, but there was one day in particular where I was utterly frightened of the thought.

We had entered a village after cleaning out a small pack of machines who had been harassing the boar hunters outside. It was not without cost, however, as we lost three good men that day, and two more were wounded, but we were proud of our victory nonetheless. We made camp for the night and started a fire. One of the hunters brought out some meat and we all gathered around it to cook it over the flames. My stomach rumbled. We had been a week on the move since losing the supplies to those bastard machines at the last town. The day before we lost ten men to one of their flying contraptions.

I looked up from my meal and saw our new friends watching us eat in silence. They were mostly young men, and a few old ones who could barely stand without help; all dressed in furs and animal skins with the occasional piece of metal armor here or there. Their leader was an imposing figure, though he looked like his knees might give out at any moment. He strode forward and bowed deeply in front of me. His hair was white as snow and his beard bore as much gray as black. His voice was a deep booming thing that echoed off of everything within earshot when he spoke.

“I thank you for your assistance, General Holmberg!” he said while still bent over with his hands on his knees, “For too long have my people suffered under the shadow of these machines! For too long have they stolen our lands and our way of life! But no longer! Today is a good day! A day when we strike back against these monsters and reclaim what is ours!”

My stomach sank as I realized what this meant for us, “You expect us to fight? Now? After just fighting these machines ourselves, you want us to go back out into them?”

The old man stood straight up and beamed like some kind of fucking lunatic, “Yes!” he said with vigor that made my skin crawl at the prospect, “That is why I asked for your help in the first place! You see…”

We followed the old man through the village until we reached its edge where he gestured proudly at…well nothing really. The village was built inside a forest clearing where there wasn’t even enough space between trees to fit another house or so it seemed while I was looking at it. There certainly wasn’t what you could call a road or anything resembling civilization either so I guess maybe this whole thing wasn’t as big as it seemed from my perspective earlier. It did however look like someone had used trees to make small fences around houses that were built right next to each other so that they formed squares or triangles or whatever those shapes are called when they connect together into one shape bigger than any individual square or triangle could ever hope to be.