and the stars will be their guides (hermitcraft space au)

battle (twenty)

*

~ yeah, this love could kill me, but all my love could make you smile ~

*

TWs: blood, war, slight gore mayhaps?, death

***

Etho swept his eyes over the battlefield. It was chaos. Blood of all colors stained the orange rocks of this planet, and bullets were slicing through the air. Lazers got swung in broad arcs, cutting straight through the throats of individuals nearby. There were huge groups of people fighting toe to toe with melee weapons, some risking their lives just to pull off a move that would only slightly debilitate their opponent. 

Looking back at the rest of the hermits, they seemed to be taking in everything as well. Some, like False, were strategizing, but most were using this as the last moment of peace before they'd have to join the fray. 

Sights set on someone in the distance, False stalked off across the battlefield, electric sword gripped tightly in her hands. The hermits watched her go, and then started to separate. Doc left first, then Impulse, then Wels, and so on. Etho left when about half of the group remained, after tossing one last look back at Beef. Hopefully he'd be okay. 

Spotting fellow frostlings holding an outcropping of rock, Etho went the opposite direction. He was willing to kill aliens, but he didn't want to steal the lives of more frostlings away. He was still guilty about Veshiv. 

Etho heard rapid footsteps behind him, and managed to spin around just in time to see an axe strike where his shoulder just was. Before the antennaed alien could recover, one of Etho's holo-daggers was embedded in his chest. He collapsed, and Etho stole his axe. He'd have no use for it anymore, anyway.

There was a shout from not too far away, and long-haired woman who must've known the man Etho just killed ran forward. Fueled by grief, she fought viciously, but she made crucial errors that Etho used to his benefit. Before long, she was also dispatched, and Etho went on to pick more fights. 

Time bled into itself. Etho fought and killed, shot and killed, struck and killed. He almost got hit once, but was able to dodge at the last second. Some people would call that skill, but Etho wholeheartedly believed it was luck.

There was a loud thump behind Etho, and the ground shook. He jumped and turned to see a giant metal tentacle had created a divot in the dirt where Etho just was. It was a good thing he hadn't paused to scan the battlefield there like he'd been thinking about doing. 

The tentacle lifted, and Etho looked up to see a huge war kraken made of glinting gray metal towering over him. As he watched, it snatched a spacecraft right out of the air, squeezed it in one of its tentacles, and slammed it to the ground. Etho didn't have to check if anyone survived. The spaceship itself barely did, now demoted to a hunk of twisted metal.

Etho leapt out of the way as another tentacle came crashing down. He rubbed his eyes as dirt got flung into them from the impact. Before he could have another close call with the war kraken, Etho scurried out of range of the deadly mech. 

Scanning over the battlefield, Etho spotted some of his friends. False was a whirlwind of electricity and blade, wreaking havoc wherever she chose to go. Stress was kneeling by Grian, applying some sort of salve to his arm. Knowing him, he'd gone recklessly into a fight and had gotten scraped by an axe or sword. Impulse and Mumbo were flying drones around, raining bullets on the aliens. Doc was there too, defending the mechanical experts from anyone who dared come close.