“What the fuck was that shitshow!?” Anaya slammed her fist down on the console. “Yah could have at least gave us a heads up!” She pushed a few strands of hair away from her face.

“We apologize for that Miss Anaya. But you understand we might not have gotten that chance again.”

“I don’t give a damn about any of your chances! My crew and I nearly lost our lives in that fight!”

Rhenixa rolled her eyes, stuff like this happened all the time, it was a mercenary thing at this point in her life Rhenixa had memorized it all down to a step by step process. Approach the employer with anger, threaten them, offer compensation and profit. She didn’t need to be there for anything. She left the bridge and left off towards her room.

She pressed the button for the door lock release to enter. Her room wasn’t exactly decorated with much, she had the basic set up, a neat bed and a desk with tiers of shelves. The bed was neatly made but her desk was cluttered with valuables. well, valuables to her but junk to anyone else. She walked over to her desk she eyed it for something. It took her only a moment to find the object but she found it, a black armband with a white triangle designed onto it. Underneath the badge was words written in Galactic Standard. The most immediate translation of the words would be Staff sergeant Torinya. The armband was a memento to her days back in the Galactic Union, she smiled as she remembered the final days before she joined Anaya

Rhenixa took cover besides several others wearing a similar outfit to hers. The only difference was that they had helmets and camouflage vests compared to her black one.

“Damn.” A blaster ricocheted off the slab of concrete. The Clarocean male poked his head back behind. He spotted Rhenixa, “Who’re you?”

“Staff sergeant Rhenixa Torinya of the City guard!” She adjusted her beret as it came too far forward from her movements.

“City guard? You guys are still alive?”

“Yes! We still contain at least four hundred units!” She puffed out her chest. “We’ve been tasked with reinforcing dangerous sectors due to our acclimation of the city.”

“Look,” More blaster fire came from overhead, Bits of the rock formation chipped. “Four hundred is a great number and all but that is not nearly enough.”

She looked solemn for a second. She honestly was trying to make best of the situation, but when an entire planet rebels to the point of pushing the Galactic Union into defending a few blocks within their embassy, bringing four hundred soldiers was not very helpful.

“If you really want to help us, see if you can get the General to send more walkers over here, Our long range radio man was killed somewhere up there.” He pointed towards the source of the blaster fire.

He pointed to his radio on his chest, this was a smaller more squad based radio. The range wasn’t very far but it would do its job for most of the way.

“I’m on channel 72!” He peeked over the cover and fired a volley, The intensity of the returning fire calmed a bit, He must’ve suppressed the one’s firing.

“Go! I got your back!”

Rhenixa plucked two grenades from her belt, She nodded, he nodded. She pressed the buttons on the sides. A small bar began to fill up, she chucked the grenades into the direction of the enemy. The first grenade released a plume of smoke. The other erupted a high pressured explosion sending debris everywhere.

‘Chk chk’ “Squad move! ‘Chk chk’ She relayed over the radio. She got up from the cover and ran towards the embassy. Three other city guard members followed close behind. Red lasers flew past her at insane speeds. So close she could smell the burning oxygen they left behind. Impact craters would form in front of her threatening to trip her. Her dash got her 3 meters away, she hid behind a destroyed artillery walker. The top gun was blown clean off, no doubt from a rebel suicide squad.

Back here, was pretty much safe from any and all attacks, but that didn’t mean that she could take her time to get to the embassy. 2 meters further and she was at the medical lines. Which was typically just a painkiller station. Blasters would cauterize wounds by the time they exited the other side. Other than grafting not much could be done for the injured.

She approached a massive building, The steps themselves seemed to reach into the heavens. This was common architecture for the Galactic Union when they wanted to show off the size of their dicks on planets they would build massive structures like this. At the roof was several high ranking officers. Most of them used the roof as a vantage point to get a bird’s eye view of the battlefield. Each of them was frantically running around giving out orders on radio. Except one, his white uniform still in pristine condition.

“Sir!, our forces on the bridge can’t handle any more pressure! I already sent most of my unit to reinforce but-”

Rhenixa was cut off my a raised hand. He pulled the binoculars away from his face. “No need. The rebels will be broken by the time we sustain heavy casualties.”

“Sir, we have to do something! We can’t just leave them on their own!”

He looked down at her arm patch signifying her rank. “Staff sergeant Torinya, here.” He handed the binoculars to her. She took them unsure of what he wanted. “Look.” Five bombers flew overhead, their engines made no sound but could be felt, This was very distinctive of The GU’s technology.

She put the binoculars to her face and zoned in on the drop location. It was a close air mission. The bombs dropped in the general vicinity of the fight. She watched as the darkened part of the city was lit up.

‘Chkk’ “Damn..., ...treat! ...too close!” ‘chkk’ A voice over Rhenixa’s radio could be heard. The voice came in choppy but it was easy to tell what he said.

“...General.” She put down the device and looked at him. The sound of bombs exploding could be heard in the distance. In seconds the bridge that was being fought over was nothing more than rocks over a river.

“Two cycles, Torinya, Two cycles. The city is leveled because of this conflict.” His tail swayed back and forth solemnly. “We’ve fought nonstop, why? This place isn’t even important. It took me this long to realize why we are here. Have you figured why?”

“General Shoriya...”She took a few steps away from the man who was driven obviously driven mad.

“We are here to kill or be killed. The last time I received any orders? Half a cycle ago.”

He leaned over the perch, We are only prolonging our own deaths by fighting. Rhenixa backed away to a couple feet away.

“As Guardians of this city, General Shoriya I am placing yah under arrest for treason!” The three others of her group raised their arms and took aim at the General.

“You, a police officer, is arresting a general? Don’t make me laugh.” He raised two fingers and looked the other way, three well-placed blaster shots found marks into her squad member’s chests. Everyone around them stopped moving about to see the commotion.

“What?” She reached for her holstered blaster.

“Don’t Staff sergeant.” Three previously cloaked caloricean males revealed themselves, Their armor was pitch black and looked to be made more of a protective metal. Their helmets covered their entire face. They stood like statues aimed at Rhenixa. This was no doubt his personal bodyguards.

He leaned off the perch, “I’d rather see this city burn before I die by a city guard.” He spat on the ground. Rhenixa growled at him, She knew doing more would result in her death. He snapped his fingers, his bodyguards sprung to action they grabbed her arms and handcuffed them to her back. One of the guards kicked the back of her knee make him fall to the ground. She let out a small yelp as her face collided with the concrete.

The screech of a high powered blaster went off, in front of her she could see the bodyguards drop one by one, soon blood began to pool underneath her. She flipped to her back and maneuvered her body to sit upward. The general and his posse laid dead on the ground. A ship was hovering above her. She looked around, it looked like everyone except her died. A spotlight shone on her.

In a second it landed across from her, A female waltzed out the door, Buxom Caloricean with silvery hair approached her, She pulled her blaster out and aimed at her.

“I’ll give yah one chance. Since you’re from Clarociea. Join my crew or die here.”

Rhenixa looked around her, Her squad was killed by the Galactic Union and she was about to too. No reason to stick around with them anymore, She deserted. The planet was later bombed to the point of being a giant crater.