19th PAWW’s story

This is the first time I’m writing anything related to war, and I have about no knowledge about army ranks, other than it slightly changes depending of the country. I tried to follow the Canadian ones, but excuse me if it’s still a mess. I’m not really a fan usually of war films or stories in general, but I love Mass Effect and the Matrix (I’m talking about the war part of the trilogy here, not the “follow the white rabbit” part) and I’ve watched Pacific Rim, so I decided to give it a go with some twists of mine to be more comfortable with my subject.

Things aren’t always bad. There are rays of sunshine through the smog, laughs through the tears, love through the pain. God knows how much I love you. So much. I wish I told you before you left. Instead I’m telling you now, that at the first chance I’m alone with you, I’ll do what I wanted to do ever since we were kids.

Please, be safe and come back to me.

Cirri

Krager reread the letter, helped by his torchlight, and smiled to himself. He tucked it back in his uniform, close to his heart. He looked out the window giving away on the training ground below, where soldiers were sweating under the blistering sun. Their captain was unmerciful, shouting orders and insulting those who dared to fall or get hit by their sparring partner. He sighed and got up to return to the barracks. He had a few hours to sleep before he would be the one bleeding on the training field.

The alarm woke him up with a start, his sight blurry as he check the time. This was no ordinary alarm, however, and Krager didn’t realize what it was for until he heard shouts in the hall. They were under attack.

He quickly got up, fumbling to put his pants on and his vest at the same time. He emerged from the barracks half-naked, and he trotted down the buzzing hall while buttoning himself up.

“Krager.” A voice said behind him, and he saluted his superior.

“Captain, sir.”

“There’s no time, we have to depart at once, we’ll debrief there.”

“Where exactly, sir?”

His captain sighed. “The Capital. Come on, we have to go, soldier.”

Krager’s blood froze, and he forgot to breath for a second. The Capital was under attack. It had strong defenses, but no wall was unbreakable. Cirri was in danger.

He followed his captain to the armory where weapons and gear were being distributed through shouts and the excitement of the troops. The colonel was nowhere in sight, probably trying to analyze the current attack to find the best strategy.

Krager tightened his hold on his dagger. He was one of the specialists, born with the ability to focus his Z with his mind only rather than needing a channel like a firearm, and so he knew he would be placed behind the front line.

They gathered on the teleportation pad, which was big enough to teleport their whole squad. The captain shouted the command, and off they were being zapped a thousand kilometers away.

“Thank God you’re here.”

“How things are going?” Krager’s captain went to the technician who was tending to the teleporter.

“You’re the second squad to arrive, and we’re still being outnumbered. Those monsters came out of nowhere.”

By monsters, the technician meant Chimeras, mutated humans over centuries of living in polluted areas of the planet.

“Where’s the colonel?”

“In the war room, sir.”

“Alright.” The captain turned to his squad. “Go to the entry room. I’ll get an update on the situation and join you ASAP.”

Krager followed his comrades, silently worrying over his family and friends in the Capital, praying for their safety. He could feel Cirri’s letter pressed against his heart, between his uniform and his undershirt, and he unconsciously placed his hand on top of it for a second. Around him, his comrades were whispering to one another, wondering how many Chimeras there were and how come nobody suspected the attack before it fell on the Capital.

Other squads joined his while they waited, the large windows giving away a display of what was happening too close of the walls for their comfort. Chimeras were fighting off the sentry robots and were slowly winning despite the explosives and the machine guns. Those mutants were vicious and blood-thirsty, controlled by an invisible force to destroy everything on their path.

Krager’s anxiety was growing by the minute as he watched the chimeras win over their defenses. Some were beginning to climb over. He looked around to alarm a superior, but the troops had been left on their own.

“They’ll breach the defenses, we have to do something,” he growled in annoyance and fear, already walking to the commands to open the main door leading to the wall walk.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Krager.” Murphy, another soldier he got along with, followed him.

“Our superior isn’t here to see for himself, I’d rather be lectured later on my impulsiveness than watch and do nothing.” There were so many buttons on the control panel, Krager pressed on some randomly, and the gate finally began to open. “Close the gate behind me, I can do a bit of damage on my own.”

“We all know your abilities, Krager, but it’d be stupid to go on your own.” Another one, Fraser, had joined them. The two were heavily armed, they would be able to cover him while he’d do his Z. A few others joined them, seeing the small gathering at the opening gate.

“I need someone to close the gate behind us!” Krager shouted around, and one volunteered to take care of it.

“Alright, then let’s go.” There were a dozen that followed him outside, on the wall walk. They ran to the nearest chimeras who kept climbing the wall.

“We can’t shoot, we could damage the wall,” Murphy observed, visibly upset.

“Then shoot the ones on the ground while I take care of them,” was Krager’s response before he began to focus. Pinching his index and thumb together, he meant to throw something away, and one of the chimeras was thrown away, down in the crowd of its companions. Despite the situation, he smirked, and he heard some laughing behind him.

He threw away as many chimeras as he could, but being the only specialist present, there was only so much he could do. The other soldiers kept shooting at the lot, but explosives cost them more Z, it’d take longer for them to recharge it, and they had no time.

Krager wished for the troops to come out already, take their position and be done with it, but their combat seemed to stretch without getting any help. He managed to put some traps down the base of the walls, and some chimeras got trapped in them, but it wasn’t enough.

“Let’s go, soldiers!” A voice erupted over the blasts of the firearms, and Krager sighed with relief when he saw soldiers emerge from the opening gate. Things would get easier now, hopefully. He meant to come back to his officer while they created a diversion, but a chimera managed to escalate the wall without his knowing, and he only heard a shout from Murphy to get out the way before he felt a heavy weight on his back. He felt face front with a thud, and he rolled on his back.

A chimera was disgusting to look at, a mix of human and animal parts, and one baring its teeth at him, spit dripping down on his chest armour, was nothing but frightening. He blasted a pure ball of Z in its face, hoping that it’d move off him, but it only staggered for a second. It still gave Krager time to take out his dagger and slash one of its limbs, and it fell on him. He screamed under the sudden weight crushing him down, his armor already giving away. He wasn’t able to concentrate enough to use his Z to lift it off.

It turned its head towards him, intending to chew it off, but Z blasts caught them both off guard, and it was sent roaring away.

“You alright?” Murphy helped him on his feet.

“Yeah…” He forced out a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He observed their surroundings, noticing with satisfaction they were quickly reducing the enemy lines. It wasn’t long before they cleared them all, the sickening odor of the mutants filling the soldiers’ nose.

The specialists used their last resources to levitate the corpses and throw them off the wall walk, down in the sand.

The soldiers screamed with joy. The Capital had been saved.

Things aren’t always bad, Krager thought with a small smile. He had someone to visit before leaving.

I didn’t want to call the magic used magic, but I couldn’t find any cool names, so I simply named it Z.

The PAWW Project