John rested for a while. It was important to rest before battle. In not time at all the ship’s AI directed him to go to the Arbiters’ Bay and board a blade dancer. John joined his fellow squad members on the blade dancer and watched the monotonous aether through the holo display. The fleet, he noticed, was in a very bad condition. The recent battle had really taken it out on them. There were large dents and patchwork fixes on the hulls, and some even had small fires smoldering in them. They had set off from Aroth in glorious splendor, but were coming back torn and ashamed. The fleet soon came out of the aether and into Aroth’s orbit. The enemy fleet was a few hundred thousand miles out, not willing to come closer to the surface to space weaponry of the planet.

As soon as the elven fleets reached, the blade dancers took off. John could see tens of thousands of them moving towards the planet’s surface, like bees returning to their hive. Their queen was under attack.

“Our mission,” the squad leader said, “is to protect the waygate. It is located in the heart of the city. We will split into groups of ten and take our positions on the roofs. The enemy is expected to reach there in less than an hour, so we will have to be quick. Reinforcements may come at any time through the waygate. We must protect their entry at all cost. They are our only hope.” Their only hope? Were things really that bad? Were the proud elves going to be defeated. Though John had been subject to racism and abuse he didn’t want to see this happen. He was still a citizen of Kumra, and not all elves were as bad as his crew mates.

“What about our war machines?” on elf asked.

“They will be doing battle elsewhere. The command center is under siege as well.”

“The humans have already reached the command center?” another elf exclaimed. “This is bad. Very bad.”

“They’re just humans,” the first elf sneered. “Whip them enough and they will turn tame.”

“Enough,” said the squad leader. “We’re about to land.”

The elves exited the blade dancer. John joined the last group, though it was clear he wasn’t wanted. Five other blade dancers had landed in this area. John saw Alutien, the elf who had bullied him, among the people there. John was tempted to shoot him once the battle started. With a well aimed shot he could take him out. No one would ever know, as long as he hid out of sight. He shook his head and controlled his breathing to remain calm. He had been too filled with anger of late. It was affecting his judgment. Alutien was an ally, no matter how bad their relationship. In battle, their disagreements wouldn’t matter. Everyone had to work together. John took his position and waited for the humans to arrive.

The humans came later than expected. Led by two huge war machines that looked like mecha, human soldiers moved in. Their power armor was big and ugly compared to the elves’, and painted with the Empress of Oor’s colors, black and red. Their armor looked a little like Spartan Mjolnir armor from Halo. He had thought this kind of armor looked streamlined and elegant in his previous life. His aesthetic standards had really changed in this one. The soldiers carried spears on their backs and pulse action rifles in their hands. The war machines left deep pits wherever they walked. They spotted big rail guns on their arms and plasma swords in each of their hands. There were missile launchers on their shoulders and laser turrets on their chest and back. Small spherical drones flew around the top of their heads.

“Go,” he heard the squad leader’s voice say from the speaker in his helm. The elves ran forward as silent as ghosts, and jumped upon the unsuspecting humans. John followed. He phased on instinct, avoiding a stream of bullets. A grenade sent him flying back. The explosion had torn apart his aura shield but had not pierced his armor. His ears rung and his vision shook. His balance was unsteady and he began to black out.

John was out only for two seconds. He jumped back onto his feet and ran forward, his blaster firing rapidly, glaive always at the ready. He came into melee range of one of his enemies and with a swing lopped off the human’s head. It was not easy. His armor was stronger than John had expected.

John holstered his blaster and used two hands to hold his glaive. He pumped his system with stims, feeling energy course through his veins. His mind become alert to the slightest stimulus. He phased in and out of the battlefield, searching for his next target. He quickly wove aura around his glaive’s blade that made it blaze with fire. He phased out next to an unsuspecting human and chopped him into two. With the added effect of the fire, it felt like cutting through butter.

John summoned lightning and sent it crashing down on a war machine. The war machine was paralyzed for a moment, but soon recovered. It trained its rail guns on John and began firing. This wasn’t good. Wasn’t lightning a machine’s weakness? It didn’t appear to be so. He strengthened his aura shield as much as he could and ran, trying to dodge the incoming fire. He phased whenever he could but he still got hit a lot. His armor integrity was falling rapidly. His greaves had broken apart. He fell to the ground.

The war machine seemed to think he was dead and aimed at a new target. John got back shakily to his feet and a human rushed at him with his spear. These humans were unusually agile even though they were wearing such bulky armor.

“Elves come in this size as well?” he heard the human say as he struck.

John struck away the human’s thrust, feinted to the left and kicked him on the right. The human went tumbling down on the ground. With a phase in and out John was on top of the human and ended his life. This was his third kill during the battle.

A very fast bullet broke through John’s aura shield and buried itself in his helm. Sniper! John looked around and spotted him in one of the houses. He half ran half phased his way there, making short work of the one mile distance that separated them. The sniper tried to run but John caught hold of him and threw him back. With a thrust he made his fourth kill.

“Retreat! Back to the blade dancers,” John heard his squad leader order on his comms link. What was happening? He looked towards the battlefield and saw that the elves were not in a good situation. Half of them were dead, the other half were being torn apart by the two war machines. The human soldiers were as skilled as most of the arbiters there, despite not being able to phase. They were holding their own while the war machines rampaged. The elves were outnumbered and outclassed. Elven reinforcements, for which they had been so desperately waiting, were nowhere to be seen.

John ran back to the blade dancers and jumped into the last one just as it was taking off. He heaved a sigh of relief as the blade dancer began ascending. Then, he felt someone kick him from behind and fell onto the ground.

“Cover our retreat,” Alutien glared at him from the blade dancer’s door way. The blade dancer took off, leaving John all alone in the middle of an enemy army.