[Spooling Drop Systems]

It was when I was waiting in the dropship. One of the few times I could cool off and think. That I had the time to reflect on her. The way the sun had lit up her crimson hair, or how her emerald eyes shined with the fervor a thousand suns.

I sighed. A touch of the whimsical. A touch of the forlorn.

I tried to ignore it, of course. We were in different divisions! My chances of seeing her again where minuscule. Either of us was highly likely to die on the planet below.

Yet, every time I closed my eyes, I saw her.

A thousand years of service and I had only met two like her. One got away and vanished. The other died before I could reach her and preserve her memory core.

[Initializing Drop Protocols]

I mediated. It was something all veterans learned and mastered to stave off the madness of waiting. This calm before the storm.

I pushed her out of my mind. I was over her. She and I would never meet again.

The ship detached with a yank. The sad little twitch in my stomach was all I needed to know that we were less than a minute away from the next hell.

The world rumbled as the dropship touched the atmosphere and the gravity slithered its grip onto us.

The sounds of aerial combat embraced the hull as explosions rocked near us. The shockwaves shook us in our seats.

[Initializing Hyper Drop Protocols]

I clenched my teeth as plasma fluid filled my seat and the chair converted into a stand the only stall. Then came the hums.

5 seconds later, we were all shot out of the bottom of the ship. Part bombardment, part deployment as we smashed into the ruined city below.

Abbotsford was once a tourist city. Now it was overrun by the genetic monstrosity of the Republic of High Evolution.

My plasma shell popped a second after impact. Enough to cushion my fall but not long enough to hinder.

My fellow brothers and sisters immediately engaged anyone stupid enough to poke their heads out. You don’t earn the marks of a hero by dying, you earn them by making your enemies die in your stead.

The sounds of my assault rifle hummed as the multi-colored shots flew into various bio-horrors. Their carapace was designed for standard military power, and the difference was such that they might as well been naked.

The smell of seared flesh and spilled blood filled my mind and I embraced it. This was my home. The land where dreams came to die.

[Distress Signal – Reinforce Front A22]

My captain, the grizzled teddy bear Angelica grunted as we all turned back. So much for the spearhead. The plan didn’t even live 10 minutes and we already had to hike back.

The power armor had us gliding across the field as we ran near top speed. No monsters. Strange.

The sounds of war reached us and I realized that we must have landed between waves. The backs of hundreds of various bio-horrors were presented to our eager trigger fingers.

“Fire at will!” Angelica yawned into the comm-unit and the twenty of us let loose. This close to the front lines meant that we could easily resupply and the need to conserve anything was now gone.

The bio-horrors acted quickly. Many turned as the first shot rang out, but they were overmatched as our barrage tore into their ranks.

Nearly a third fell before they could mount a proper offensive. Which means that the front lines were given enough room to reorganize.

A dozen against nearly a thousand and I watched as they all were mowed down. Not a single one could get within a dozen meters of us.

The horde was thinning but the moment of shaking earth was immediately followed by an upward explosion.

“Eldritch!” a brother screamed out as I groaned out in annoyance. I hated these abominations. They were annoying to kill since its weak points were always random.

I floated nearly thirty meters in the air and I had lost my gun somehow. Magnetic locks my ass. I swear if Sean had messed with the polarity settings again I will shove my knife into his kidneys. Again.

“Hey there. Fly up here often?” a smooth and amused voice flooded my comm-unit as I was caught at the apex of my flight. We were now chatting via physical sync.

I looked over and my heart punched me in the throat.

She was here. The red-haired angel. A Valla of high order given her pearlescent flight armor. I had memorized her ID tag.

I was over her. I felt nothing for her. I had only memorized her 24 digit id code because of professional curiosity.

Yeah. That sounded good.

I was in the corps to find that grand end. A place that only I could find since we were all broken. All searching for that place to simply lay down and close one’s eye.

I took a breath as I pointed down on the eldritch below. It was attacking Charlie, and as much I wanted her to shut up, I didn’t want her dead.

“Drop me on that thing,” I sighed as I watched Charlie dodge the ninth attack. Bitch was crazy. A missed tenth attack.

It was all eyeballs, teeth, and ooze on six arms like legs.

She hugged me, her arms sliding over my armor and I cursed the ability to feel her soft gloves sliding over me. She had me in a full-body hug as we began to ascend.

I pulled out my last two weapons. An SMG and my combat knife. The SMG was something I earned in the Battle of Four Crossings. The techwizards of the People’s Torrent were well equipped and this SMG had survived three hundred years of service.

The knife, however, was my baby. It was something I had ripped from the hands of the Cultists of the Purple Moon. The heat blade was used in ceremonies of blood and needed to be able to pierce through the body like butter.

It also worked on everything else as well. The 1000-degree knife tended to slice into anything and everything.

My knife hummed to life. The dull grey blade started to glow as the temperature spiked. I gripped my SMG and willed the safety off, and onto full auto.

“Here we go!” she cheered as she did two loops and swooped down at top speed. The world blurred but I had my eye on my prize.

Together we dived and the eldritch grew from a speck into the proper monstrosity it was. Charlie was half-eaten, but she was struggling as her rifle dug into its flesh. Well, she was right, bayonets never went out of fashion.

As we approached, she let go of me and somehow made it to my side. I glanced over and I could feel her smile as she held a glowing spear in front of her.

We crashed the beast and it was more buoyant then I expected. The creature flexed like Jello as we impacted it. The scream as our weapons dug in was music to my ears.

I had my knife in a reverse grip and used to claw into the flesh. Where there was an opening, I fired without reservation as I made my way over to Charlie. She was screaming as she reloaded.

The woman was cursing in limericks.

I shook my head as I hacked around her.

She nodded at me and she regained her footing. The armor was melted on the outside, but she seemed fine.

The eldritch let loose a final roar before it puttered out a wheeze as it… deflated.

I raised an eyebrow as I watch goop ooze out everywhere and soaked the grounds in purple blood.

I looked up and my full squad was still here.

“Nice moves,” my crush said as she sauntered up to me with a wink. She had lost her helmet somehow and her red hair was freely gummed up with purple fluids. A giant eyeball was like a kabob on her spear.

Against my better judgment, I blushed. I shrugged instead.

“I like that in a man,” she stated with a grin and leaned in. She kissed the side of my helmet. I both felt and tasted her lips as she winked and sauntered away.

My blush went terminal and I was never more glad that I was obscured from view. The catcalls from both my team and hers did. Not. Help.

My eyes were riveted to her ass as she swayed away.

Okay. I definitely wasn’t over her.