Artishan

Day 23

Kinshiro was in the main war-room of the Kin Shi Tal's
base.  It was a room very simple that was used to plan
all of the Kin Shi Tal's major battles.  The room had 
several maps on the different walls of the planet Monic, 
each showing a specific aspect of Monic like: the 
location of places, area climate, and trade routes.  
There was only one door into the war-room at the back of
the room and only one window that looked out towards the 
rear of the base.  A large wooden table was in the 
center of the well lit room with several chairs around 
it.  At each chair was seated a different general or 
tactician in the Kin Shi Tal army from each division.
And seated at the head of the table was Kinshiro.  He
had called the meeting because a messenger had recently 
arrived with news of the Kinshou army and The Shadows 
defeat at their hands.  Kinshiro wanted to formulate a 
plan to stop the army as they appeared to be marching 
toward the main base of the Kin Shi Tal and because 
they had begun conquering Anihc.  Kinshiro had hoped the
Saigono force would have returned by now but they had 
not.  
	In the war-room the generals and tacticians were 
discussing, planning, and yelling at each other what 
they thought should be done.  Kinshiro was quietly 
listening to all of them to come to a final decision.
After a bit longer Kinshiro raised his hand to quiet
everyone and spoke, "I have been sitting hear listening 
to all of you discuss a plan to defeat the Kinshou army
but I have not heard anyone say if we CAN at this 
present time."  A general of Kinshiro's spoke, "Of 
course we can Kinshiro.  We just need to hold up in our 
base and attack them from a distance to weaken their 
numbers and then attack head on."  "Did you ever 
consider, general Pang, that arrows, rocks, and throwing
knives may not work against them?  Did you forget what 
happened to the Shadow?"  General Pang folded his hands
and reconsidered his plan.  "I know all of you don't 
wish to see us get beat by the Kinshou army or lose our 
base but we must not be foolish.  I believe the Kinshou
army can only be beat with time and more information 
about them.  It is said that if you know yourself and 
your enemy you will always triumph.  The Kinshou army 
knows themselves and obviously has been here gathering 
intelligence and knows us.  We know ourselves but we
don't know the Kinshou army.  The Shadow were in our 
position and made the mistake of attacking and were all
but destroyed.  Therefore we must fall back and hide 
somewhere until we get more information on the Kinshou 
army.  To do this we need a defense line to hold them 
off at the Kin Shi Tal sub-base while we evacuate our 
main base," Kinshiro pointed at General Pang, "General 
Pang you will lead this defense force and inform the 
soldiers at the sub-base our plan."  General Pang stood 
up at his chair, bowed, and left the room.  Kinshiro 
pointed at a tactician, "You, Binsen will see to our 
escape plan."  Binsen also stood up, bowed, and then 
left the large, wooden war-room table.  "The rest of you
help with the evacuation and see to our hiding place.
I believe you all know where we are headed."  Everyone in
the room nodded and then left as well.  Kinshiro was 
left in the room to ponder his plan.  Time was growing
short because the Kinshou army was surely almost upon 
them.  Their only hope lay in the backup base which was
on a small island just off the coast of Dunnhizigyz that
very few knew about except the Kin Shi Tal.  They had 
built a base there for just such a situation.   Kinshiro
then stood up and left the room, unsure what the future
would hold.
	Artishan was in a room at the Kin Shi Tal 
sub-base with other members being given orders to defend
the base from an approaching army named Kinshou.  Weapons
were handed out after the briefing by General Pang, who
had arrived not long ago, and also units were assigned.
Artishan was surprised that she was already going to 
fight without much training.  She was assigned to one
of the rear units to defend the base.  Pang had said 
they were giving the main force time to escape to a 
backup base.  Artishan couldn't believe they were being
sacrificed just to allow the other base to retreat.  It
sounded like suicide to her but then maybe Kinshiro 
knew what he was doing.  
	Artishan was stationed with others inside the 
base ready to go out and attack at any moments notice.
The plan was several archers and long range attackers
would be on top of the base pelting the Kinshou army 
until they got close to the base and then wave after 
wave of Kin Shi Tal soldiers would be sent until one of 
three things happened: The Kinshou army was stopped, 
orders were given to retreat, or the Kin Shi Tal ran out
of soldiers.  Artishan didn't like the last one but that
sounded like what was going to happen.  She was in about 
the sixth wave of soldiers.  She contemplated deserting 
and going back home but she would rather die then be a 
deserter.  The only thing left for her to do was wait...
	Artishan could hear the order to attack and 
felt a slight tremor that made her feel very uneasy. 
She figured the Kinshou army had made it close enough
to the base for the attack to begin.  Artishan listened
hard to see if it sounded like her side was winning.  
The only thing she heard was shouting, the swishing of 
air from the projectiles, and a loud sound of marching
feet.  The marching sound didn't even stop or halt.  It 
just droned on and kept getting louder.  After a few 
more minutes a loud voice was heard from the next room 
and the Kin Shi Tal soldiers left the room.  Artishan hoped
that the Kin Shi Tal units would stop the sound of 
the marching feet but it didn't.  It continued on like 
an itch that just wouldn't go away.  Then suddenly 
a captain of the Kin Shi Tal army rushed in through the 
door where Artishan's unit was at and yelled, "UNIT 
SIX ATTACK!"  In response to the orders, Artishan and 
the rest of her unit ran out of the room and through 
several empty rooms until they made it to a large open
door that a bright light shone through.  After clearing 
the door the light filtered all the way around them and 
they were outside.  Artishan's eyes quickly adjusted to 
the sun's rays and what she saw almost made her stop in 
her tracks.  On the field in front of her unit were 
several hundred dead Kin Shi Tal soldiers and only about
a dozen of the armored Kinshou army knights.  Behind the
pile of dead corpses was the Kinshou army.  Artishan 
shrank at the massive size of the Kinshou army and the 
ominous look of their black armor and large glowing 
swords.  Now that she had a picture to go with the sound
of the marching feet, she wanted so bad to go back home and
deserting didn't seem like a bad idea to her anymore.
The only thing holding her back was the image of the Kinshou knights 
that paralyzed her from running away.  She shook the 
thoughts out her head, pointed her wooden spear weapon 
that had a metal end on it toward the Kinshou army, and 
ran with her unit toward the black wave.  They reached 
the army and as Artishan kept running many of her unit 
was being slaughtered to the left and right of her.  
Soon she felt alone as almost all of her unit was gone 
but she still ran until she made it to a Kinshou soldier 
and rammed him with her spear.  When her weapon collided
with his armor it immediately broke leaving her with 
only the option to fight hand to hand or run.  Artishan 
began beating on the knight with her fists and he slashed her with his 
sword then kept moving on.  Artishan hunched over as she
began bleeding from her side and another knight sliced 
her on the arm and another cut her on her back.  
Artishan fell over, spilling blood all over the ground.
Artishan's last thoughts were of her loved one and she
said, "I can't believe it.  I didn't even get to do 
anything..." Artishan then closed her eyes and died.