Caleb hadn’t been as fortunate as The Sergeant, he was still alive, but only just. Most of the lower half of his body, and his left arm, had been disintegrated. Some of the tissue had been cauterized, and where it hadn’t, dark fluid flowed freely out. His eyes were open, wide, looking somewhere beyond the here and now. But not like I’d seen in Kel’s face before, not the distant look of someone lost in deep thought. Caleb was looking into a different Beyond.

His mouth was moving, he might have been trying to form words, but I don’t think he was making any sounds. And then, suddenly, without any fuss, he stopped moving.

Kel was screaming, holding that mangled figure to himself. The screams were loud, far louder than any noise I’d ever heard produced by a living creature. From his eyes, torrents of water streamed—tears I knew they were, though I had never seen the phenomenon in person until that moment.

Eventually, the yelling stopped and Kel simply rocked back and forth, holding the body.

By this point everyone else had regrouped. Chyrkrady was helping The Admiral to her feet, and I counted eight of our two dozen escorts remaining.

I saw Chyrkrady look over to me with what looked like surprised relief that I was still alive, he sprinted over and grabbed me, turning me round, appraising my condition. Once he determined I was no worse for the wear, I saw another look of relief on his face, followed by one of immense sadness as he turned and went to Kel’s side.

It was in that moment, way down the wide corridor, halfway between us and the first blast doors, that the ceiling melted away and our assailants arrived.

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It seemed the Hegemony was boarding after all. The plus side to that was we were unlikely to suffer any more Torsion volleys, lest they obliterate their own forces. The down side was, well, they were boarding us.

They dropped down four at a time, pulse rifles firing before they even touched the ground. They immediately began advancing down the corridor, formation building behind them, part of their contingent already at work torching through the floor to drop in on the next corridor, and the next, and the next.

Our escorts had taken up defensive positions on either side of the wide corridor behind whatever cover they could find, though already two more had fallen, The Hegemony’s soldiers were nothing if not accurate.

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Pulser fire arced off the walls, Chyrkrady tackled me to the floor as a blast passed so close as to singe the hairs on my mandibles. I saw another round hit Kel center of mass to no effect… I don’t even think he felt it.

The Admiral was pinned down behind an outcropping of rubble. The Hegemony forces were advancing, albeit slowly, progress hindered significantly by the marksmanship of our remaining escorts.

Then we heard the dull buzz of a tripod mount being seared to the floor, and the whirring of a dynamo charging up. Our enemies were preparing a rapid repeater cannon, four of them lugging the oblong receiver and locking it onto the mount. Then their vanguard fell back and the cannon opened fire. Another of our escorts immediately fell, carapace split open from several successive blasts, as everyone else flattened to the deck.

Then two Hegemony soldiers came forward through the ranks, their plasma lobbers aimed directly at Admiral Preyl.

I saw her reflexively flinch, arms raised in front of a face turned away, in her last seconds before annihilation.

But there was a blur from the corner of my eye. Faster than I had ever seen a creature move, Kel positioned himself between her and the incoming death. The rounds exploded against his back, over and over, as he scooped her up, and with one mighty swing, smashed a partially ajar door open and tossed her, and then two of the escorts inside like children’s dolls.

Then he was back to me, Chyrkrady, and the remaining escorts, hefting a dislodged bulkhead against the wall, creating another alcove of safety from the relentless fire, and shoving me to the corner as he, again, effortlessly absorbed pulser fire that would’ve spelled my doom, before racing back across the hellfire to buttress The Admiral’s fortifications.

Having never experienced combat myself, I was in shock. Everything felt unreal, like i was watching an archival reenactment.

My vision relayed everything in stop-motion, inexplicably vivid.

And so it was with preternatural clarity that I saw the plasma grenade rebound off the wall and roll to my feet.

I saw Chyrkrady kick the grenade, in slow motion, as he dove to cover me.

Shielding my body with his own.

And across the hall, I saw Kel’s head turn, eyes go wide.

I saw his mouth just beginning to move when the violet flash erupted and became my whole world.

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I must have come to only a moment later, though at that moment time had no meaning. MicroCycle or MegaCycle, there was no difference.

Kel was there in front of me, so was Chyrkrady—or at least most of him.

His hind legs had been severed in the explosion, as had the majority of his abdomen.

Kel was frantically tearing what remained of his garb and pressing it to Chyrkrady’s wounds. An attempt to stop the outpour of dark fluid that spurted and pulsed in rhythm with what I knew to be his hearts’ last beats.

I had seen death on this day, but I had never seen dying. I had seen the aftermath of explosions and gravity beams, the instantaneous ends metted out to brave soldiers, the final twitches of a body already vacated. But I had never seen the transition from fully lucid and living, to empty husk staring emptily outward. But I saw it now.

I saw Chyrkrady laying there, staring with full knowing at himself and his situation. Him looking directly at me, not the look of one already gazing beyond, no, rather the look of one as aware as they’d ever been. That’s how he looked at me. And then he looked up to Kel, and with what must have been the last of his strength, stilled Kel’s frenzied hands with his own, met his gaze, and said,

“This is not your fault. Let it go, my friend.”

And then i saw his eyes widen, his body spasm as he coughed blood, body spasming again as his hands clenched Kel’s—and then he relaxed, head lolling back, arms dropping, all the tension in his body leaving.

On this day I saw death. On this day I saw dying.