The first attack was a simple scouting mission, one that destroyed about 20% of our military space assets. Then came the bigger attacks. Thankfully we had built another shipyard, and even though the shipyards were never empty, we never had enough ships. Never enough to hold ground and keep away the Space Spectres. We had mounted a blitzkrieg-ish attack on every space station the Zekkromian had set up. We managed to knock down their hold on space, and while they rebuilt, so did we, building fleets of evacuation ships that had prepared for this very day.

“They’re launching a huge attack with one of their biggest armies!” I shouted out. In less than a day we would all be off this hellhole, but it looked like the Zekkromian were going to make us pay for that decision.

“Get every ship bombing their biggest shield generators, and pummel the armies beneath,” I screamed out, quickly getting into my battle armor, as various other military officers around me began to shout orders. “Every soldier move out. This is the day we’ve been dreaming of! If you don’t live to see tomorrow, know that you went down protecting the generations to come! We’ve almost finished evacuating the Giggam and the Heiive! Now let’s kick some ass!” There came a loud ‘HOORAH’ from the soldiers that had not already left. The Humans and Almani gave the traditional human salute, while the Heiive and Giggam sat, and lifted their front left leg, the quadreped-sectaped salute. The Zekkromian had come in waves across the ground, with enormous ground forces wearing exoskeletons, guns that shot short beams of highly concentrated light, and light lances, a sort of melee weapon.

We all ran to the magnetic launcher, getting into a pod, and being launched. Halfway to our destination(the army) our pods shot us forward, before continuing on, falling to our destination, damaging enemy units before we fell, and all hell broke loose. Thousands of troops began to land in a army of one million powerful soldiers. More kept falling, but for now, we were outnumbered beyond belief. I fired my rail guns at them, killing one, and wounding another, before they were on me.

In the brutal melee I couldn’t see the rest of the battle, and wouldn’t have tried as I entered a battle-haze, with adrenaline pouring through my veins and everything slowing down. I dodged one of the light lances thrusted at me, and responded with my fist, cloaked in lightning, pounding into the top of the alien’s head. Red energy flowed off of me as weaved through the army, punching, kicking, pistol whipping, and shooting whenever I had the chance. I took a few hits, which slashed at my armor, dents and slashes, exposing a small amount of my skin to the hot air of battle. The Hash’Yoth and Juncathari had stopped their war to fight this invasion, and even with the full might of their empires, the Zekkromian just kept coming. The Juncathari had fallen, The Alliance had fallen, half our allies had fallen, nearly every other empire had fallen. We were running.

I got hit. Badly. Through my left calf, it burned a hole right through. Then, while I was stunned, through my right shoulder. I blasted off a whirlwind of air. Now here I am. Surrounded by enemies, gravely wounded, so tired I could barely lift my gun. I don’t know how long I’ve been fighting. I glanced at the killcount in my armor. 40 killed, 373 wounded. I looked at the timer. I’ve been fighting for 3 hours. Damn. I sent out a support beacon. Then, before I was hit again, used all my magic to launch an enormous EMP, that cloaked every enemy nearby. My suit still operated, but it was damaged and heavy. I took it off, flash healed my wounds, just to stop blood from going everywhere, and stood. At first the Zekkrom seemed perplexed and confused. Then they tossed down their weapons and leapt at me. I lifted up my middle finger and bent it. Challenging them and insulting them.

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I met every slash with a punch, and every bite with a kick. Everytime they leapt, I grabbed one and tossed it. Every bodyslam I flipped over me. I stayed on the defensive, waiting there, waiting for help. Soon help came. Two Giggam tore through their ranks and stood over me. As soon as they did, my eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I passed out. The mix of sticky and crusty blue blood mixed unpleasantly when it met my deep red. It covered me, and probably wasn’t any good for the huge wounds I had torn open with the help of Zekkromian talons and teeth. I felt a feeling of guilt that I wasn’t able to kill more. I was helpless to add even one more slap.

I awoke slowly. The white hospital bed I was in was clean. I was clean. My wounds had been tended to. I used every ounce of will in my body to sit up, get out of the bed and drink the water next to it. I then walked out into the hall. I immediately heard the sound of a bustling hospital. I’d been in hospitals enough times to know that sound by heart. Some nurse came over to me and tried to stop me. I glanced in her direction, and I felt something. My brain flexed and contracted, and I felt intense pain. I knelt to the ground, my knees touching the silvery halls, and my hands went straight to my head. It felt like my brain was pulsing out from the center, sending waves through my nervous system. Meta screeched against metal and the hairs on my arms rose, protesting the noise. I screamed, and it felt like it echoed throughout me and my muscles went stiff. Blood began to slowly stream out of my nose, and drops came out of my ears. My muscles stiffened, and I couldn’t see. My breath became inconsistent and raggedy. I don’t know how, but I just knew that I was causing the nurse pain, even though I could barely hear her screams in the muted state my ears were in.

Slowly I stood. I wrapped myself in a cocoon of pain, and pressed on. I collapsed again. I felt another pulse, and more blood gushed out of my nose and ears. My hands felt like the opposite sides of magnets, and I tried to contain the raw power seeping out of my body. I tried to press my hands together, using everything I could. I let my hands slip for a moment, and one went up the other down. I flipped around, and the metal around me bent and dented.

I was terrified.

What could I do.

I tried something new. I closed my hands, and the power stopped. The blood flow stopped. I passed out again.

Head hurt. Who am I. Rade. My mind focused around this one single fact. The white room I was in was cushioned and the bed I was in was comfortable. My mind pulsed again, and I screamed. I heard something faint, just a whisper in a whirling hurricane of pain.

I am alone, and need help. Surrounded by Zekkromian. Come as fast as you can. The message repeated. Then I remembered. The blood. The pain. The battle. Had we won? Had we escaped? I opened the door, the pulsing in my mind had stopped. I walked out into a corridor, with ten guns pointed at me.

“Who are you, and what happened to Rade?!” Another one stood behind the soldiers pointing guns at me.

“I am Rade.”

“Then who am I?!” The man shouted. Memories came rushing back again.

“Wrang. What happened to me?” I screamed out the last word and my mind pulsed again. Two soldiers dropped to the ground gripping their heads.

Wrang stared, disturbed. He then gripped his head, and clenched his teeth. “Nobody knows. But you are hurting us, stop.” He said. My mind stopped pulsing.

“Help me please.” I whispered, passing out, one, last, time.