Location: Terra Colony Andromeda

Sublevel Alpha - Quadrant 2 - Passage 8-Beta-12

Date: February 1, 2050

“6 targets confirmed! We got incoming!” Shouted a soldier, shouldering his assault rifle down the length of the corridor. Targeting reticles shone in his helmet’s visor as the incoming targets entered his firing range. He unleashed a full auto barrage blitzed the distance, his fellow pair of comrades at his side adding their own bullets to the attack. “Focus fire, start with the ones in the back!”

“Sir, Yes Sir!” His fellow comrades bellowed in clipped tones, refreshing their rifles with full magazines.

Bright bolts of energy flew in, pinging off they’re flak armor while their thin defensive aura lessened the blow by a miniscule degree. One comrade was pushed back as a bolt got him in the lower calf. Grunting, he steadied himself, taking a knee to follow up with suppressive fire.

His buddy to his left moved in on his side, using his very body and armor to cover him. They saw targeting reticles shift position, moving out of sight as a new screen of fog was produced from the incoming intruders.

“Insurgents.” One of the soldier’s growled in their helmet.

The far end of the corridor was engulfed by the smoke and the soldiers didn’t have thermal visors. Basic equipment for line troopers like them wasn’t standard issue.

“You’re up!” One of the soldiers motioned for those behind him to get in the fight. He glanced back, nodding a signal to the explorer behind them. “We’re counting on you. And we got you covered.”

Sinder returned their nod as they moved to let her through. With one great press of her back foot, she dashed ahead and dove bravely into the obscuring smokescreen to meet the opponent head on. She sniffed, following their distinct scent to find a figure amongst it all, then frown as she found it difficult to be fighting against a fellow human. Especially a student, going by the uniform they were wearing.

But I have to do this. Is what Sinder told herself.

Throwing out a punch, she knocked a young girl to the side, her body thumping heavily through a reinforced steel door. Knocked down, she skidded into the room and slammed into the far wall. Behind Sinder, Bao was moving in with the soldiers to keep the remaining enemies at bay.

“Eat this!” Shouted Bao, whipping her tail around to trip and then smack another intruder with her thick tail. “You messed with the wrong whale, bitches!”

“Apprehending the target.” Sinder said. “Bao, back me up when you can.”

“You got it! Be with you in a minute.”

With her back covered, Sinder proceeded to enter the room, a changing room of sorts with benches set parallel with rows of lockers to her left. The young girl was picking herself up off the ground on the far wall when she coughed up a thick mouthful of spit. Green bile mixed with mess she made on the ground as the scent of ammonia reached Sinder’s now wrinkling nose. This was horrible. How things had turned out this way was beyond her, but this was how things were now. Someone was attacking the academy, and Sinder was here, and she wouldn’t just stand idly by and let these people do as they please.

Even if they’re kids, or students, or humans.

For god sake, they had set off bombs and were attacking people at random. Hundreds of staff members and students were already injured, some even dead.

“Damn you!” The young girl snarled at Sinder. Sinder was taken aback by how hateful her eyes were. They were murderous, fanatical, as if Sinder had somehow deeply wronged her. “Damned Animal! Damned Academy! Fuck, all of you!” The young girl started to get up to charge, her hands collecting power to shoot off a blast of energy. “You all shouldn’t even EXIST!”

Sinder let her get the shot off, the blast of energy pinging off her flaming protective aura.

“Shit!” The young girl cursed, letting off another and another blast of energy. They all fell short of breaking past Sinder’s barrier, nothing more than annoying prods. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Sinder frowned down at her. She was a foot taller than the girl and probably old enough to be her big sister. “Give up.” She said, “Stop this, and come quietly. We won’t hurt you.”

“Lies!” Snarled the girl. Her braids of brown hair had come loose, tattered, fraying as her rage seemingly took form as a writhing wave of faint blue energies. “I will not stoop so low as to listen to the words of an animal! I am the Chosen! I am!”

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!” Shouted Bao as she ran in behind Sinder at full tilt. “SHUT THE HELL UP!” With a hop, she sent herself feet first at the young girl with all her built up momentum, getting her in the chin with a flying kick and toppling her over like a ton of bricks.

“Bao!” Sinder chided. “You didn’t need to go that far!”

Bao stood and dusted herself off. “You were taking too long, and I can’t stand this girl’s tone. Come on, we need to get back in the fight. Yuzu and the rest can’t do this without us.”

“Speak for yourself.” Yuzu said over the comm. “I’m doing just..” A short bout of static hit the comm as Yuzu’s voice went shrill. “Ekk!”

“You good?” Sinder asked. “What was that noise in the background?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Just some gunfire. The soldiers aren’t letting up and there are more intruders in this part of the facility. How about you?”

Sinder glanced at Bao, who said, “Our guys are mopping up the group we just encountered.” She shot Sinder a bewildered look. “This is strange though.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Yuzu, who sounded as if she was placating a wounded soldier. Her rare ability to heal people had its perks.

“What’s strange is how anyone could be stupid enough to attack the academy.” Bao continued. “I mean, what kind of moron would do that? It’s like announcing to the world that you want to be enemy numero uno.”

Sinder thought she had a point. The sudden attack on the terracolony had first started within the confines of the mega structure. For now, the damage was contained to military installations, but this was widespread, having it multiple locations all at once, which meant that a group of radical insurgents slipped through the colony’s security. Or did some of the residents already inside the terracolony decide to attack. But why?

Life in the terracolony wasn’t all bad, it was peaceful in fact, more peaceful than the outside world, so it was unlikely anyone would “rebel”. Maybe some went stir crazy from being cooped up. Sinder shook her head. No, not likely. She glanced back at the now unconscious student, noticing again how young she was. 15, maybe. Her mind went back to an earlier theory. Did the insurgents infiltrate with the students, or were some of the students spies? Both? Does that Shidou guy have something to do with this?

Her mind spinning, Sinder sighed to take all this deep thinking off her shoulders. She wasn’t cut out for it, and the stress of thinking such horrific theoretical ideas made her very gut churned with uneasy indigestion.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Ma’am.” A soldier appeared in the doorway of the room, his rifle lowered and his posture tense. His two comrades were behind him, rifles raised, sweeping from left to right. Each of their eyes lingered on the unconscious girl for a second then went to Sinder. The tallest of them came forward. “Ma’am, we’re all clear out here. The last of the ones in the corridor are neutralized and cuffed. We should move on now.”

“Sure.” Said Sinder, frowning. “And don’t call me Ma’am. Sinder will do.”

“Understood.” The soldier pressed the comm bead in his ear, then said. “This is CDU Squad Bravo 12. 6 in custody. 3 in critical condition and 3 unconscious. Send a retrieval unit to my location.”

Sinder heard a static crackle over the shared communications line, and the gruff voice of Colonel Standforth became clearer, “Good work. ETA is 3 minutes. Move onto Quadrant 1 when you can. We’re detecting another wave of infiltrators.”

“Sir?” Sinder asked, cutting in. “Do we know who the infiltrators are and who is orchestrating this raid?”

Standforth paused, probably deliberating what information she was on a need-to-know basis. “By the current guess, I would say they’re from the Humanist and Authoritarian Radical group by how they behave. All this talk about being the chosen and their superiority fits.”

“And where did they come from? Which country?”

“Unknown.” Standforth said curtly. “Our teams are looking into that. For now, focus on apprehending these intruders. I will try to get answers.. For all of us.”

Sinder nodded. “I see. Thank you.”

The comm went dead. Sinder was left with more questions than answers now. The chain of command was always like that, and the people closer to the bottom, the ones in the field like her, never knew the whole picture.

She looked over her shoulder, seeing Bao knelt down next to the unconscious girl and using a pair of cuffs from the soldiers to bind her hands. Just as she got one cuff on, the girl woke up and her eyes went wide.

The girl snarled something incoherent, then the shape of her body glowed a blue hue. Sinder realized in horror that she was gathering core energy into her body, and at an unbelievable density. A gust whipped up around the room with the girl at its center. Bao was thrown back onto a bench that broke her fall.

“Die!” The girl screamed, standing as blood spilled from her eyes and nose. She was unsteady, unstable, and was letting her powers go wild. She was turning herself into a bomb. “Die! ALL OF YOU! DIE! DIE! D..”

Rapid pops boomed as the soldier behind Sinder shouldered his way past, leveling his rifle, and unloaded every bullet he had in his magazine. He carved bloody holes into the girl’s vomit stained uniform. “Kill her!” Yelled the soldier, already slamming home a new magazine as his comrades spread out to flank the girl from both sides. “Maximum Violence, Give no Quarter!”

Sinder wanted to stop this, she shouted for them to wait, but her voice was drowned out by the cracking gunfire of 3 full automatic rifles.

The girl rag dolled as the countless bullets pierced her skin and broke her bones at odd angles. The blue hue of energies around the girl’s body had already dissipated, but the soldiers were not stopping. They were unremorseful in their actions since they knew explorers, even the untrained students, had a hearty vitality to them. There was no such thing as overkill in this situation. There was no mercy for the enemy in their eyes.

Which is why, between intervals of their reloads, they launched a mass reactive grenade from their rifle's underslung launchers. The fist size rounds punctured flesh, then eviscerated bone as they triggered a micro concussive explosive inside their target.

The first took off her leg at the knee. The second one blew the girl’s stomach apart. And the third sprayed her skull into chunks. It happened so fast.

Sinder stared in wide eyed shock, her mouth somewhat open as her lips quivered in dread. “No.” She muttered under her breath. “Why.. Why does it have to be like this?”

A minute later, there was nothing left of the girl, only a pile of mashed gore in a splotch of red framed against one side of the room’s wall. Sinder heard the heated hiss of the soldier’s still raised rifles, their barrels red hot and trained on what remained of the girl. They were ready to take action if it even twitched.

“Go. You don’t need to see this.” Said one of the soldiers over his shoulder. His voice was muffled by his helmet, and his face was obscured. They all gave off a familiar coldness. “We’ll handle this. Leave this to us.”

Sinder didn’t nod. She couldn’t move.

Bao, getting to her feet, helped her out and sat her down to one side of the corridor when they were far enough away. A long silence held in the corridor, with only the shaking quake and dulled echoing booms interrupted the moment.

“We can head back.” Bao finally said. “We don’t need to continue if you don’t want to.”

Sinder said nothing for a time. She couldn’t get the sight of the body out of her head. She’d seen things like this before. She’d cut off Itsuki’s hand in battle a few times, and that had seemed easy enough to stomach. But this is different. Because.. Because.. A short flash of the girl’s young face had her almost wanting to vomit. Sinder clasped her mouth with a hand, fighting back the disgusting taste in the back of her throat. She was so young. She thought. So young, and.. We killed her.. I killed her. I played a part in this.. Murder? Crime? What do I even call this?

Strangely, Sinder wondered why the sight of a dead body hadn’t phased her. What did was the death of someone so young. It was the act of killing, the part that she played that horrified her. It wasn’t the gore, it wasn’t the blood. It was the morals and thoughts behind the actions of killing.

Am I really that desensitized? She asked herself in her mind. How? Why? Am I just used to it?

“Strange, right? Neither of us are phased?” Asked Bao, as if reading her mind. “This is a first for us, right?”

Sinder didn’t know it but her face had scrunched in bewilderment. “Tell me.” Sinder said. “What part of what just happened made you uncomfortable.”

Bao crossed her arms. “I had a feeling that that was what you were thinking about.” She swayed her head right to left. “I’d say the intent. I wondered if we really needed to kill her.”

“And you don’t find it odd that you’re not sick from seeing a dead body?” Sinder asked.

“No, not really. I did find it strange during the first few assignments we had as explorers, and as students. But I think this is different because this time the person whose dead was an enemy.” Bao nodded to herself. “She was trying to kill us, so it was self defense.”

Sinder admired how tactful Bao could be. She said her mind and she didn’t let complex shit throw her through a loop. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Sometimes it is.” Said Bao. “And sometimes you have to make it simple.” A heavy weight came to her eyes. “Because, if you get caught up in thinking about every detail, you’ll go crazy.”

They were fighting their demons today. Sinder and Bao were like two peas in a pod right now, and they could tell what the other was thinking. They exchanged a brief look that said, we’ve seen something like this before, haven’t we?

There wasn’t a need to nod. Their eyes did all the talking. Their contemplation was stopped as they heard the approach of another squad from the opposite way they came. At the front was Bubi, with Ironmouse trailing behind him and waving over at them.

“Everything alright!” Shouted Ironmouse. She rushed over and knelt besides Sinder, studying her for injuries. “You look really pale. What happened?”

“Nothing much.” Sinder said, feigning a smile. “Just tired is all.”

Bubi stood next to Bao, keeping his eyes on the corridor as the soldiers of their squad fanned out to keep watch. Sinder again felt that familiar cold professionalism that radiated off of them. It should’ve scared her, but she was glad to have people like them around. They could carry her burden. No, they were willing to carry her burden. You could count on them.

A new quake put everyone on edge. Another bomb had gone off. People were dying, the students were in danger, lives were at stake. Bubi’s handsome face twisted into a scowl, a glint came to his dark azure eyes.

“We should move.” He said. “Care to join us?”

Sinder was about to stand when Ironmouse reached her hand out to her. Sinder took it with a firm grip. Bubi could see a kind of conviction in how Sinder held herself.

“Let’s go.” Sinder said, taking up a position behind Bubi. “I’ve got your back. So let’s do this.”

“Same here!” Added Ironmouse.

Exchanging nods, they all started into a jog, heading for the next signs of a struggle. Sinder had made her choice, one of a number that continued to increase with every passing day. She was growing, and she would become her own person. And there was no way in hell she was going to sit back and let this event pass her by, not when she had the power to make a difference, to change the outcome.

I’ll do it. I’ll fight. I hate killing, but I’ll save as many as I can. Friend, or Foe. Sinder unconsciously balled her hands into fists as she ran. Not again. She thought suddenly. Not again. I won’t be a bystander, I won’t.. Be a burden.. I won’t.. Be scared. The brief flash of an old memory came, one of a cold cave where the dark monster of her dreams butchered bodies uncontested. Never again. I won’t ever be caught in the middle of a tragedy.