It was strange to Kepler to not have Zosk around anymore. Apparently they had released him as he didn’t want to stay after the battle. It made sense for him to leave, but he honestly had hoped they wouldn’t let him, he had grown rather attached to the reptile. It was too sudden too, he hadn’t even said goodbye. Kind of a jerk move on his part, but he couldn’t fault him after what had happened. He had no idea how he would have reacted in his stead.

Even he had a hard time getting over the battle, and it wasn’t his friends or people they had slaughtered. It was hard to imagine what that would be like. Battle hadn’t been like he had thought it would be. There had been so much blood, so much suffering. Somehow he had had the illusion that it would be glorious or something, but the reality of it was another thing entirely. Even thinking back on it made him uneasy.

A call from his mom brought him back to the present, and he accepted the call.

“Hello mom.” He said.

“Hello son, are you aright?” She asked.

“No, not really, but I’ll manage.” He answered, voice tired.

“No? What happened?” Her voice going slightly higher pitch than normal.

“I can’t tell you, not yet at least.”

“I hear a lot of rumors surrounding Tharsis these days, how the military are moving a lot of resources over there. Did they relocate you as well? Did you see your father? Talk to me Kepler.” She sounded worried.

“I am still in Tharsis, I saw dad, but we didn’t really talk, didn’t get the opportunity. A lot is happening, I mean we have talked, but not about that.” It just didn’t seem important anymore, if he was honest. His dad hadn’t been there for him, true but what was that compared to the slaughter he had participated in.

His mom was silent for a moment, and he just didn’t want to talk right now to be honest. He knew she meant well, and she had always been there when he needed her, but right now, Kepler just wanted to be alone for a while.

“Mom, we can catch up later alright? I’m sorry but now is not a good time.” He finally told her.

“Alright, you get better ok? Love you.”

“Love you.” He told her before he cut off the call.

It was weird, and unlike him, but he wanted to sulk, to be alone. Usually he was a rather social creature, and liked people in general, but right now? He hated himself, for what he had participated in. Maybe it was a way of punishing himself, and that almost made him laugh. So pathetic. What a weak punishment. He had killed so many, and here he was, sulking. Truly pathetic.

He was soon called in by a sergeant giving him his next orders. Apparently he was being relocated, now that Zosk was out of their hair, he was being treated like any soldier. His squad had been called in, like most of the military.

It felt weird, walking through the newly built military compound. Like the halls were too narrow. Suffocating. He had always liked it before, the neat order of things, the thought that they would protect Mars. Now it almost felt like he walked among murderers, and he was one of them.

He had brought his gear to his squad’s assigned room, but no one was in right now. He started packing it all in his locker, when the door opened. It was Nox.

“Hey Kepler ! What’s up?” He asked cheerfully.

“Hey Nox.” He simply responded, continuing to pack everything in.

“Woah, what got you down in the gutter?” He asked surprised.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said, angrier than he would have liked. Nox held his hands up.

“No worries mate, I ain’t biting.” He tried to joke.

“I’m sorry, it’s just...“ He trailed of. How did he even begin. Plus, he wasn’t sure he was even allowed to talk about it, they might be briefed later, but it wasn’t his call to make. Like the battle, he hadn’t had a say in it. The thought just made him angrier, fucking military and their stupid rules.

Nox was patiently looking at him and waiting.

“It’s just that it’s been an awful day yesterday. I don’t even know where to begin.” Kepler sighed.

“At the beginning?” Nox tried cautiously. Kepler thought about it, and finally decided to tell his friend everything.

Kepler started with the portal, and Nox eyes went wide, but he didn’t interrupt, and let Kepler tell him everything that had happened. By the time Kepler was finished, his eyes were sad, but he hadn’t cried, but it also felt like the weight on his chest had lessened. Nox sat beside him, and patted his back.

“Holy shit man.” He finally said. They sat silently for a while. It was unusual to see this side of Nox, he was usually the goofy and fun guy. But it had helped him, somewhat, to unload.

After a while, Nox finally spoke up.

“Let’s go eat with the others?”

“Sure.” Kepler said. It would do him good to see everyone. It wasn’t really time to eat, but they had arrived yesterday and didn’t have any orders yet, still settling in this new base.

They arrived in the cafeteria that had been set up. It wasn’t nice like the one back home. Just a big square room with lots of tables, no ornaments or plants. Barren, except the boring furniture to sit and eat. Kepler saw the rest of his squad already sitting around a table. They hollered cheerfully at him.

“The return of the lost soldier!” They cheered at him as he sat down. He found himself smiling slightly.

“You don’t look too happy to see us.” Sarah joked.

“I’m sorry, been a rough couple of days.” He simply said. They looked at Nox who shrugged.

“No worries, we are here now, everything will be alright.” Tim winked at him. They continued chatting and for a moment Kepler started to forget a bit. He still had that uneasy feeling in his stomach, but for a moment at least, it was better. He didn’t participate much but it still felt good to see his friends.

“I tell you, Marie really likes you Nox, and I don’t know why you don’t go for it.” Tim was excitedly talking, when suddenly, and explosion rocked the entire building.

The blow had them all on the ground, before anyone could get up, another explosion rang out, and all the air around them fled through the hole in the ceiling. Through it, they could see ships shooting down at the base.

Nox was mouthing something, but without air they couldn’t hear him, and he soon switched to messaging.

What the hell is going on? He sent, eyes wide. There was a brief pause where they all looked at each other, like they couldn’t believe what was happening.

Kepler was the first to move, and started running for the exit, motioning them to follow him. There they found enough suits for all of them. Quickly changing, they felt explosion after explosion through the vibrations of the ground. They had to hurry. The suits had the standard power swords, which they all brought out. They could see soldiers running around outside, unsure of what was happening.

In the sky, several ships where shooting at the base, while smaller drop ships landed around the dome containing the portal. Kepler instantly recognized the ships. It was ships from earth. Had they gotten wind of the portal? But they were at peace!

His squad stood there, unsure of what to do. They were still fairly far away from everything.

Squad D27, regroup at the A42-E56.

Kepler looked around, they all seemed to have received the same message. He took a quick look at the map, but before he had finished, Sarah took the lead, and they all followed her.

The rally point was close to the dome, behind a small hill. As they came closer they saw more Martians regrouping there. Kepler also saw several other rally points where soldiers were regrouping. He couldn’t see the dome from his position, and the air was too thin to carry sound properly.

It was a surreal feeling, seeing but not hearing, only feeling vibrations in the ground from the impacts. There was nothing shooting at the ships above. They hadn’t had time to set up enough rail guns, they must have shot them down first.

They arrived at the rally point, and a commander stood at the edge of the hill, looking down. He turned around as they arrived.

Get ready for boarding soldiers. That’s our target. He pointed at the closest ship.

Jetpack on. Most already had their swords out, but it was mostly rookies. They hadn’t ever seen real combat, and it showed.

They waited for a few tense seconds, until finally the commander ordered the charge.

Go Go Go ! He sent, and they took to the air, rushing the ship. There was about a hundred of them, and in the distance Kepler could see other groups flying to the ships, with several going for the dome.

He set his sight back on the ship. The commander sped up and they all followed. One of the towers on the ship turned their way, and they spread out. The shot took out a few, but they continued and before it could reload they were on the ship's underside.

The commander quickly cut open a square for them to go through, and they stormed the inside of the ship. They waited a bit for everyone to come in, and the commander ordered them to split into four groups, each led by a sergeant.

His group was to go to the bridge and use the ship to shoot at the other ships. They ran in the corridors at full speed, but there was no one on the ship. They turned corner after corner, going for the bridge. After a few minutes they were close, and still hadn’t encountered any resistance.

Finally they arrived at the bridge, four Earthers with full suits got up from the controls. One of them triggered an explosive near them, and they all flew back from the blast. No one had been truly harmed, but it had gained their enemy some time.

As they charged back in the bridge, they saw the Earthers running through another exit. Their sergeant motioned for them not to pursue. He looked at the ships command, and cursed. Kepler saw that the ship had been locked down completely. It was useless to them, but also to their enemy.

Finally they gave chase. After a minute, it was clear they were running for the shuttles.

Stop pursuit, reinforcement needed at A78-E68. They all received the top priority message.

You heard the man. Their commander sent, and they all set for the exit, quickly rushing through all the corridors. It was completely quiet, but Kepler knew the battle raged on down on the ground.

Soon they were at the exit, and saw the battlefield from above. It was chaos, power swords clashing in sparks of energy, rail gun impacts shaking the ground, corpses littered the ground. There were so many.

Without missing a beat, they sailed through the air to reinforce the Martian army, they were gaining ground. The Earthers were slowly retreating in the dome where the portal was located.

Kepler landed with his unit in the middle of the enemies, but close to their allies. They quickly formed a circle to protect their backs and the fighting started in earnest. Someone came at him with an over arc slash. He parried it, and they both got slightly pushed back from the impact. He feinted a low slash and his enemy fell for it, his sword changing trajectory at the last second. It cut of his right arm cleanly, blood splattering. He quickly finished him and helped out Tim to his right.

Out of nowhere he felt a terrible pain for a second, someone had cut of his left arm. He turned around and saw that Sarah had been cut down on his left, but her head seemed whole. He dodged the next blow, but barely. An explosion rocked all of them. Tim finally managed to get rid of his opponent and turned to help him. He delivered a killing blow before someone got him from behind, cutting his torso horizontally.

They were being overwhelmed. But they had been gaining ground ! The others squads should have gained enough ground to join them, but they were all alone. Kepler desperately dodged and blocked as three people slashed at him. There was only a few of them left now, a small cluster of ten against a hundred.

A large explosion sent them all to the ground. Kepler quickly got up and saw that a group of Earthers had been annihilated. They were retreating now, towards the dome. In the sky, the enemy ships had all been shot down, many Martian ships were now above them.

The tide was turning completely, but at what cost. The Earthers were running for the dome, all of them. The Martian army was chasing them, and Kepler joined in. Angry. He hoped Sarah and Tim were going to be fine, not thinking about the ones he hadn’t seen go down.

They rushed at them and soon the Dome was in sight, but all the Earthers were simply running through it, on the other side, they were clearly set up to defend. In a few minutes, all of them had either gone through or been run down.

They had been ordered not to pursue to the other side. It was a natural choke point and easy to defend even with smaller numbers. Kepler looked at them with hatred. How could they have done this. He hoped his squad was fine. Even if they had been hit hard, as long as their brain survived, they would be fine, he was trying to convince himself, he knew.

He saw that all the Martian on the other side had been dealt with, littering the ground. It had been a blitz attack, and it was clear their goal had been to go through the portal. But why now? He wondered, starring at them through the shimmering sphere.

Suddenly the portal winked out of existence, and Kepler had a bad feeling. He turned to look at his dads lab, just in time to see the aftermath of a large explosion.

“Dad!” He cried out, and started to rush back.