The sun crept over the forested green landscape, illuminating the few dark, damaged buildings nestled there between two steep grassy hills. An eerie silence had settled over the small trade village and thin columns of smoke rose into the fresh morning air.
Thousands of chilled shells lay scattered about the streets, accompanied by a large garrison of motionless troops strung out about the surrounding buildings. The invading force, clad in heavy metallic armor had arrived the previous night, with orders to seize the defenseless trading post and pave the way for more troops to come through on their route. The position of the post was the last real strip of civilization between the conquerors and their objective. It had been subtly defended accordingly.
Kilie glanced over to her comrade, a mercenary employed by the International Defense Militia for the last four years of his life. They and two others had been stationed together as a special operations strike team months earlier. A few months of being under fire and stressful missions had formed a sturdy, trusting bond between the group and they were about to complete yet another, seemingly impossible and highly dangerous scheme in the defense of their planet.
“I’d say that’s about clear,” Kilie said as she backed away from the wired door and took cover behind a stack of monstrous steel crates. Torpid did the same and second later a door leading out of the room blew inward from its hinges, into another dark room, where three scared soldiers had run to hide.
The huge, jagged door skewered two on impact and the third fell back in surprise, landing prone on his armored back. Torpid was on him in a flash, his dual pistols in hand, pointed at the horrified face of the alien invader. It was a yellow green, rough and resembling a lizard’s hide. It was one of the uglier ones. The human almost thought twice before squeezing the trigger of his left pistol. But then he thought of the women and children above them in the battered buildings, still in hiding and he knew that this monstrosity before him would not have given there lives so much thought. He pulled it and stood up, glad that he had yet again lessened the ranks of the enemy.
Kilie followed him all the way back up to the surface, through the narrow hallways, for they were done sniffing out the fleeing enemy in the tunnels below the buildings. “Does it ever get to you to though?” She asked when they had finally come to the entrance of the cellar from which they had entered.
“Nope, sorry.” The mercenary replied, suddenly turning joyous in his words.
They made their way out, onto ground level of the world and exited the scorched depot they were in. The other two members of their team, a Japanese killer named Banzai, and a massive man called Havoc were waiting for them in their military issued buggy. They nodded silently to their companions and started the engine. Kilie climbed in and Torpid nestled himself in the back. As they drove off up the hill towards their base, Torpid glanced back down the main road, littered in enemy bodies and a few grateful villagers had begun to step out to see if their homes had been secured. He smiled all the way back to the barracks.
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