[ o4 - CHAPTER FOUR ]

― orion's conquest ―

There were only a few things in the universe that Orion truly admired. The way the stars shone when he flew past them, for one, was something that never ceased to amaze him. The way the yellow, white, and blue stars alike blurred together and shimmered in unison was something that always took his breath away, and he was often tempted to increase his ship's speed just so the stars would blur together even more. It took every ounce of self-control he possessed to keep himself from shooting into oblivion for the sole purpose of looking at the heavenly bodies of gas.

He was wrested out of his starry-eyed daze when his second-in-command, Mars Apophis, let out a huff and jerked to his feet, barking, "Should it really be taking this long just to travel to Cygnus? At this rate, the sun will have already risen by the time we arrive!"

Orion rolled his eyes and scoffed, the feeling of peace the stars had gifted him suddenly nonexistent. "You're one to talk about unnecessary delays. It took you half an hour to report back to me with my readied armies after I ordered you to prepare them for battle. How long does it take to tell two armies to board ships that are already stocked and ready for flight? You're lucky I didn't put you on probation for that."

"My sincerest apologies, Your Highness," Mars spoke, bowing his head in what he hoped came across as reverence. "But with all due respect, I had to prepare more than one army. Commander Titania's was much harder to prepare, as her collective forces are considerably larger than yours."

"I did not ask for excuses, Officer Apophis. Just please, for the love of all that is holy, shut your mouth and do a better job of carrying out my orders next time."

"Yes, Your Highness," the second-in-command responded.

Orion couldn't help but notice the hint of distaste that showed through in Mars' answer. He pressed his lips together. He'd had a feeling Mars was losing his sense of respect and obedience as of late. There had been many times in the last month alone that he'd noticed Mars arriving late to practice sessions. He'd caught the young man slacking off during battles as of late, and Orion had often reprimanded him for drifting off during training drills. It was obvious Mars was quickly losing his fear of authority, and Orion didn't like it.

"Orion!"

The crown prince turned around in search of the voice who had called his name, and a grin donned his face when his eyes landed on his sister. "Titania!"

The smile on her face matched his, but to Orion's surprise, the look in her eyes lacked the excitement and anticipation that his contained. She neglected the ceremonial curtsy and instead greeted him with a tight hug as she spoke, "We've just entered Cygnus' atmosphere, and you're not even in your armor yet. Do you have a death wish or something?"

Orion chuckled. "Don't I always?"

Titania pulled away from the hug and looked her older brother in the eyes, the tumultuous, worrisome, and distressed look they had bringing forth a tender kiss on the forehead from Orion. His hardened brown eyes softened a little.

"Don't fret, Titania," Orion muttered, each syllable barely distinguishable from the next. "We'll come out of this victorious. We always do."

Titania nodded, her freshly-braided hair falling over her shoulder. She took a deep, calming breath as she said, "Go put on some armor. Victory will mean nothing if I lose my closest friend."

◈◈◈

The imminent battle was inching closer every second, like an eager snake ready to entrap its victim in a bloody and lethal encounter. With every passing moment, Orion could feel the adrenaline in his veins begin to overwhelm him, its alluring venom one that he greeted with open arms every time. He indulged in the feeling warfare gave him. The rush of it was like no other.

The shining of his peoples' armor as it reflected the soft moonlight, the glinting of clashing sword blades, and the deafening cheers when his army defeated the enemy - it all added up to a sense of empowerment that flooded every parcel of his being. He dared say the art of war was the love of his carefree, privileged life.

The anticipation of the forthcoming clash of armies had his mood so bright that even the news of an unforeseen complication couldn't deter him.

"Commander Orion, we have a problem," the current pilot of the ship announced, his voice tremulous and his eyes wide.

Titania's ears perked up, as did her second-in-command's, and Orion allowed himself a slight frown. "What is it?"

"The Cygnans, they're...they're waiting for us."

Titania's second-in-command, Athena Pakhet, let out a confused exclamation, and Orion watched as Titania's breaths quickened. Orion marched over to where the pilot sat, and looked over his shoulder and through the window at the Cygnus land that was now mere miles away. Troops were waiting in hordes. Hordes larger than Orion had ever seen. He could tell even from his faraway viewpoint that their formations were strong, and that they were well-armed with swords, maces, and axes of every shape and size. As he continued to visually search through the Cygnus militia, his flitting gaze caught sight of large, bulky machinery just behind the lines of the mass of soldiers. His frown deepened in bewilderment.

"Are those nuclear ballistics?" he blurted out. "I thought no one had fully developed a weapon like that yet!"

"Well, Your Highness, it appears the people of Cygnus have," Mars haphazardly noted from where he stood in the far corner of the ship's cockpit.

A clicking noise resounded through the Sarosian cruiser, shortly followed by a prolonged hiss. Titania's eyes widened. Titania had grown up on the ships of the Saros army. In fact, she'd practically lived on them up until the time she'd been given an army of her own, and even then she continued to board the heavily armored ships to carry out violent conflicts of her own. She knew what the hissing sound was without having to look at the blinking red light on the pilot's control panel, and one shared glance with Orion told her that he knew what it was, too.

"Stop them!" Titania shrieked. Her eyes were panicked as she leapt towards the closed door that led to the rest of their collected troops. "Stop them! Don't let them out!"

Orion's felt the blood drain from his face. The hissing, the fleet's short distance from their planned landing point, the pilot's hushed panic. Orion knew exactly what was happening, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure it was allowed to happen. They'd come all the way out here, and for what? To be scared off like a bunch of frightened children? He would not be defeated that easily.

Titania continued screaming and pounding on the door that could only be opened with Orion's handprint, ignorant of Orion's footsteps bounding toward her. "Close the gates! Don't let them leave, please! They'll all die if they go down there!"

The ship shuddered, and Orion lost footing. His body slammed onto the cold floor, his shoulder immediately beginning to ache from the impact. His eyes fluttered open to meet his sister's anxious ones.

"Titania!" he shouted, reaching out to grab her hand. "Titania, listen to me."

She shook her head. Wisps of her now disheveled hair fell in her face as she choked out, "Orion, don't let them leave, I beg of you. They'll die. All of them. Your soldiers, my soldiers...they'll all die!"

Gunfire rattled the Sarosian ship once more, evoking an outcry of alarm from Titania. They were getting closer to Cygnus. Close enough to be within reach of their gunfire.

"Commander!" the pilot shouted over the erupting chaos of the ship's minimal decimation. "Should I turn around?"

Orion looked at Titania, her eyes silently pleading with him to make the decision to flee. He looked at Athena, who was hiding her terror and instead opted to furiously flip through the pages of battle plans in search of one that would help them win. He looked at Mars, who seemed to be unmoved and lacking the shock that had rattled the bones of the rest of them. Finally, he looked at the door that cut him off from the rest of his soldiers, contemplating whether or not he should open them and give the orders to close the gates, which would stop the horrid hissing sound that still rang throughout the ship.

He rose to his feet and faced the pilot. "No."

Every eye in the room turned to him. Orion felt Titania's fingers violently tugging at his shin guard. "Orion, no!" she shouted.

Orion looked down at her, his features repulsively kind in the midst of the overwhelming battle that awaited them. He reached his hand out to her and helped her to her feet. "Titania, you must see where I'm coming from. We can still win this. I'll admit, we no longer have the element of surprise on our side, but once we gather ourselves and figure out a new strategy, it will be no problem to bring the army of Cygnus to its knees. Trust me."

Orion smiled and placed a hand on Titania's shoulder, only to watch her jerk away. "Trust you? You're delusional! I trusted you before when you promised we'd turn around at the first sign of danger! Well, guess what, brother? This is way past the first sign of danger!"

"We can still pull through! We-"

"Orion! Shut up for once and listen to yourself!" Titania shouted, her prior panic now replaced with fury and being betrayed by her own brother. "If we let those men set foot on that cursed ground, it's all over. The only chance we have now is to flee. If we don't...if we don't, and hand all our soldiers' lives to them, then we might as well die, too, rather than return to father with nothing."

Orion stared at his sister, his jaw clenched. If he turned back now like she was requesting, like he promised her he would if it came to this, then he would surely be put on probation for what he had done. The court was already peeved with him for some odd reason, and if he returned after fleeing from a battle, it would surely mean punishment for him. Not to mention, the armies of Cygnus might trail him back and attack his homeplanet in revenge for the attack he had planned to do. No aspect of that option seemed appealing.

His stare remained on his sister's face as he spoke, "Do not turn this ship around, under any circumstances. Do not shut the gates, either. We will fight and we will come out on top."

Titania's angry features shifted into those of betrayal and brokenness at the words that emanated from her brother's mouth. As far as she was concerned, he'd just uttered her army's death sentence, and there was nothing she could do about it. It was his ship, after all.

"Yes, Your Highness," the pilot hesitantly responded.

Orion nodded and turned to face Titania's second-in-command, blocking out his sister's cries about how he "had promised" and how much she despised him for what he was doing. He could deal with her hormonal desolation at a later time. Instead, he said, "Before we devise a new strategy, I'd like to know how Cygnus knew of our plans before we got here. From there, we can move on and figure out a way to win this."

A throaty chuckle escaped the lips of the man that stood in the corner behind him, and he angrily turned around to face him. "How could you possibly find any of this funny, Officer Apophis?"

"You really don't know what happened, do you?" Mars Apophis mused. "Is it not obvious yet?"

Orion started to shake his head, but then stopped when a realization hit him. Every odd thing he'd noticed Mars doing in the past couple days flooded back to him all at once. Though his second-in-command had been acting strangely for a while, oddities from the past twenty-four hours were the ones that stood out the most. The way Mars hadn't seemed surprised at all when they'd discovered Cygnus' army waiting for them. How he'd refused to enter the soldiers' quarters upon boarding the cruiser, and had instead insisted to go in the cockpit alongside Orion and Titania. How he'd been phenomenally late when reporting back to him hours earlier after readying the armies. Orion slowly looked up to look Mars in the eye.

"It was you," he breathed, struggling to comprehend everything that was going on. "You betrayed us to the king of Cygnus."

Mars shrugged. "It was the right thing to do."

Orion's eyes were suddenly ablaze with a sort of wrath that even he didn't know he was capable of. "The right thing to do? Your distorted sense of morals destroyed our perfect plan! You rotten piece of scum, I swear -"

"You really think I did this on my own?" Mars interrupted with a chuckle. "No. No, it was your dear old dad that set me up to this."

Titania gasped. "Oh...oh, no."

Orion glanced back at her to see her shaking her head, muttering about how she should've seen it coming. Muttering sentiments about how the betrayal was obvious, if you thought about it. Castor and the court were angry. Of course they would seek revenge.

"What do you mean?" Orion asked. He still couldn't make complete sense of the situation he was in. It was all too overwhelming.

Mars grinned. "Your father wanted to set you straight, after all the things you've done. He's been keeping open communication with me for the past month so he can ask me to spy on you and all, so it didn't take much for me to inform him of your plans immediately after you ordered me to ready your armies. He was the one who told Cygnus you were coming. And, might I say, they were extremely grateful for his warning."

Orion uttered a string of curses under his breath before quietly asking, "Why would you do something like that? Not only have you betrayed me, but you've betrayed every single man who stands behind those doors. What did my father offer you that would convince you to do something so terrible?"

Mars looked Orion in the eye. The look on his face was defiant and prideful, and Orion wondered what had caused his loyal general to change so much. His confusion only increased when Mars worked up the confidence to spit at the crown prince's feet.

"I serve the king and the king alone," he hissed, suddenly a lot more hostile than he had been mere seconds ago. "You're a cruel and ruthless prince, Orion. I despise you for how you treat those men. How you feel no remorse as you haphazardly hand out their death sentences. But now...now I get to be the one to hand out your death sentence. And I have done it with no mercy, because that is not what you deserve. You will die, Orion, and I will laugh in glee as I watch it happen. I needed no bribery from King Castor. I did it all of my own free will."

Orion was held still by the force of the newfound rage that was rushing through him. He couldn't remember a time in which he'd felt so torn and angry at anyone - especially not at his father who had, up until recently, been very supportive of his actions as general of an army. It simply seemed impossible that someone of his own blood would betray him in such a way. It almost made him feel sympathy for Titania and how he'd just betrayed her.

Orion stormed towards the door to the cockpit, placed his hand on the lock, and watched as the door swung open. He ignored the moonlight that poured in through the wide hole the open gate left and sped towards the nearest group of guards that would be willing to follow his orders.

"Soldiers," he began, gesturing toward Mars Apophis, who now stood in the doorway to the cockpit. "I need you to apprehend this man on account of treason and put him on the front lines. This is to be his death sentence, and it will not be handled lightly, or his sentence will become yours, too. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Highness," the group of guards snapped in unison. They wasted no time in binding Mars Apophis, but the ex-second-in-command did not seem fazed. In fact, he almost looked gleeful as they dragged him past his prince.

"You will die," he spat. "The cruel prince will die the death he deserves!"

Orion shook his head. "I will not die before you, you pathetic little fool."

With that, Orion watched as the guards dragged the man rather peacefully to the front of the troops. He remained standing on a platform above the his soldiers as the ship landed, and simply observed as they marched onto enemy land with nothing but a ruined plan and a traitor in their midst. Orion Atlas, the best warrior in all of Saros, did nothing but watch as his soldiers strode into a torrent of unavoidable death and blood.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I must admit, this chapter was very emotionally draining to write. It started out so hopeful and happy with only a few pieces of foreshadowing, and it ended in such a terrible and heartbreaking way. It only gets worse from here, though, so I guess I better buckle up.

Also, I promise Natasha will come in at some point. In fact, I can tell you for a fact that she will come in during chapter 8 or chapter 9, as soon as Orion messes up enough to where he ends up on Earth. In the meantime, I'd like to thank sorceress-supreme for helping me out with a lot for this chapter. Her answer the question at the end of the last chapter have me an idea for a part of this one, and she gave me tips on how to write action chapters, which I really appreciate(even though this is nothing compared to the actual fighting action that will take place later in the book).

Anyway, thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment and ask some questions!

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CLICHES?