[Erick Sanders]

I spent the day alone. By the time I awoke from The Dream, Connor and Hannah had both left for work. After a particularly long workout, I spent the rest of the day flicking through news and forums, looking at how the war was affecting the lives of people still on earth. Plastered across almost all web pages was a banner reminding everyone that they had access to free therapy in Dream and that the government had created a subsidy for mental health evaluations.

Cases of normal people with PTSD had spiked since the pacific had attacked and people had become participants in the war, either willingly or not. I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of patriotic pride in Kiwis. The Oceanic army centres in New Zealand had been inundated with volunteers willing to fight in one of the city centres that had become continuous battles. Millions of people fighting for every street.

There was even a social media post by my mother, an image taken from The Dream of her covered in dust with a rifle cradled in her arms. Asking for anyone willing to help them to contact her. Dad must have finally taught her to shoot, I thought when I saw it.

Everyone was doing their part and by the time I lay down in bed, ready to sleep for the night, I was excited to see what the Grey Scarred Company had to offer.

When I entered The Dream I didn’t have long to wait. Pulling myself from my bed, I scooped up the holographic planet from beside me, where the town had expanded around a stone church. I left my room in search of Jack and the others.

I found Mia and Jack in the first year mess hall. Everything in the ship was separated by experience and time with the Company. I pulled up a seat beside her and across from Jack and grabbed a small loaf of bread, slicing it open and spreading butter and layering bacon. “News?” I asked.

“Nothing yet. We have been assigned, but I don’t know to what or who. Welcome to the life of Hurry up and Wait.” Jack said, taking a deep breath and rubbing his temple.

“Where are we?” I asked as I ate.

“Half a day from Earth. We dropped out of FTL a couple of hours ago. There must be something going on, I went down to see James at the other end of the ship. They were moving crates around like there as no tomorrow. And people are walking with a spring in their step, I’ve only ever seen that in soldiers just before they are deployed.”

No sooner had Jack finished speaking than a short man stepped up behind him, his wide shoulders and thick arms the width of the table. He was one of the scaled alien races, though instead of hair he had a single long scale over his head. “Sanders brothers?” He asked in a raspy voice, looking between Jack and I. We both nodded.

“Good. I’m Corporal Razah, Alaria sent me to find you, we have a briefing. Come.” He said.

“What about me?” Mia asked.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Mia Santos” She replied. Looking up at the man. He tapped his scanner and flicked across a couple of pages on his holoscreen before nodding.

“You’re in Cirins section for the assault.” He grunted. Swiping his scanner and Mia looked down at her own. “Stay here, I’ll send him a message.” He said before turning and walking towards the door. Jacks chair scraped on the metal floor as he pushed it out, jumping up.

“See you in a bit,” I said to Mia.

She smiled, “Erick,” she said as I turned around to follow Jack and Razah.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t speak unless given permission, and stand straighter. Actually, just follow Jacks lead, Do what he does and try not to piss anyone off,” she said with a grin.

I nodded before I followed Jack, thankful that someone was aware of how inexperienced I was with military protocol.

As we walked through the ship, following Corporal Razah, I began wondering if he was, in fact, a corporal, or if that’s what he just called himself. Chances were that The Dreams’ system had just translated it to whatever the closest English word was. So I had to assume he would be one military rank above us, since if this was an English speaking army, Jackson and I would either be recruits or privates.

Corporal Razah led us through the ship and into a long conference room where Alaria stood in front of a holoscreen, already speaking to several men and woman. They were all dressed in variations of the grey uniform that Jack and I wore. Various patches of armour and attachments visible. I noticed patches of exposed skin showing scars and even a few tattoos. Keg was already seated at the table.

“Razah, you found them. Good.” Alaria said as we entered the room. “Find a seat, we’re just going over our deployment plan.”

Jack nodded and I copied him, his mirror image as he pulled a seat and sat down.

“Everyone. This is Jackson and Erick Sanders. Like Kegan here, they are brothers from the island country of New Zealand.” Alaria said, The holoscreen image morphed to a satellite image of New Zealand.

“While the other Sections are each taking a major city around this ocean. We have been tasked with securing this land from their occupying forces, hence why they are with us. Lucky us,” She muttered and a low cackle of laugher echoed the room. “We have the aid of the locals, Vems is already in contact with their military leaders, he will advise them of what is required once we’re done here.” She said nodding to a man beside her who had a hollo-screen open and was typing, with all four hands.

“We have been allocated fifteen thousand bots. Eight thousand of them will be deployed in the centre of their largest city, Auckland, where the fighting is heaviest. The other seven thousand will be split between Wellington and Hamilton.” The image behind her changed to a topographic map, with the three cities labelled.

“Vems, Carter and Tarif will be overseeing their movements. We have already surveyed the planet, The only command vessels are just off the coast of Auckland. But they have forward operating bases just on the coastlines north-west of each city, about twenty clicks. While the bots assist in the city fight, we will deploy directly to the enemy's F.O.B. Erick are you still following?” She said meeting my eye as I watched her.

“Um, F.O.B stands for forward operating base right?” I asked hesitantly.

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“Yes.” She said, her face expressionless. Jack sighed beside me.

I nodded and let her continue.

“Once the F.O.B is secure and their respawn points have been disabled, we will be splitting into two groups. I will lead one and Peirto will take the other.

While my team will assault south to the city, Peirto will remain on the coastline to cut off any redeployment from the enemy. Peirto you will have full air support.” She said.

Alaria paused as a man halfway along the table, stood silently.

“Free to speak,” she said.

“Why not hit the F.O.B from the atmosphere? Then their Command ships?

“There are civilians, we assume prisoners of war contained withing the F.O.B. and as always, Mendera wants to make a statement. Clear the city, destroy their F.O.B and as they are respawning on their ships, we destroy it from orbit.

At the head of the table Vems spoke up, “Al, You might want to look at this,” He said as he threw his hand up in exasperation. Alaria mimicked his expression as she looked over his shoulder and read from his holoscreen.

“Okay, change of plan. It looked like we will be accompanied by a unit from the Pharian Suns,” She almost spat the words. A groan went through the room, one man muttering something about them being ‘Shiny fucks.’

“It’s not all bad. They will only be assisting the locals in the main battle. Let them pose for the children and we can do the real work.” She said, which elicited a light cheer.

“You all have three hours to supply and sharpen your weapons. I’m expecting some close-quarter fighting. Any more questions?” Alaria said.

Like the man before, Jack stood silently. Alaria looked at him before saying “Free to speak.”

“There are only forty-seven of us in this room? Won't we struggle to take the F.O.B alone?” He asked. A ripple of laughter went around the room at his question. The woman opposite us even looked at him as though he was stupid.

“We will have more than enough. Don’t worry.” Alaria said with a knowing grin.

Four hours later I was sitting in the loading bay beside Mia. I had been playing with the thin rifle I had taken from the vaults. Adjusting the stock and scope to my preference, getting some pointers from Mia and Keg on a preferred magnification and stock length. They had argued over the advantages of a bullpup rifle for twenty minutes before Jack had barked at them to shut up.

The others all carried swords or spears, Mia, in particular, had gotten a spear from the vault that had a segmented shaft, able to bend and warp around corners, shields or blades, while also collapsing into a shorter spear for easy carrying. Samantha had the same while Keg now had a new broad sword strapped to his back.

“The fuck is taking so long,” Mia complained, eager to get moving. She and Sam would be dropping in with a different section, assaulting the Filipino capital of Manila.

Razah, who lay near us on the floor of the bay, looked up from his scanners screen.

“They’re waiting on the and waivers to be signed,” He said.

“Waivers?” Sam asked.

“You know, wavers. Your governments have to sign a waiver in case of any collateral damage or civilian deaths. The last thing we want is someone trying to take the company to court because we blew up another religious icon or building.” Razah said.

“Another?” Mia asked.

“Only happened once. Now we have to get waivers signed before we drop. Shouldn’t be too long, if they need our help they will sign.” He said, nonchalantly.

“How often do you guys do things like this?” I asked him.

“Every few months, this one is an easy assault since this is an infantile world. Last year we had to call in five citadel ships like these and three destroyers for the assault. Guys were flying in from bounty hunts for days beforehand to help. We blocked out the sun,” he smiled at the memory, “It was glorious.”

Mia stretching out on the floor, dropping her legs over mine, and laying back. I wondered just how much collateral damage there would be, I didn’t particularly have any attachments to the dream version of Auckland, though I had to assume it was home to someone. I shook my wrist and activated my scanner, sending off a quick message to Rose, Cam and Amy. I had completely forgotten that they would likely be in the middle of the battle. I let them know that we would be assaulting from the north-west and to be safe. Then I sent a message to Tomas. Last I had heard, He had taken Saleen and Sofie off-world with Jasper. Once again searching for a safe world. Hopefully, after this war was done they could return to Earth. It would be nice to help Sofie add to her tree hut in the forest.

“What’s that?” Mia asked. I looked at her to see that she had her head turned to the side. Following her gaze, I saw three large men carrying a thick glass crate across the loading dock. A row of them followed, carried by equally large men.

“What?” Razah said, “Oh, it’s the bubbles,”

“And they do what?” Mia asked.

“Creators, you guys really are fresh-faced. They stop rebirths. You drop one into the centre of a city, and it creates a bubble of space that inhibits them. Its normally used for when you’re the assaulting force, but will be useful in case any of your enemies have set points inside the city. It will revert them to a prior point. In this case, their Forward Operating Bases or their ships.” He finished explaining and pulled himself to his feet.”Come on, lets load up, will only be a couple more minutes. If they are loading the bubbles then its time to drop.”

We all stood up after him, Mia looked to Sam as she waved goodbye to us and walked off to her section. Mia paused, for a minute, watching her then looking back at us. “Fuck off guys.” She said, looking at Jack and Keg who smirked and stalked off to follow Razah.

“What's up?” I asked, confused as they walked away.

“Just wanted to say goodbye,” she said, and before I could stop her she stepped up and kissed me. I was honestly stunned and confused. I knew she was comfortable with me, maybe a little more than I was used to, but I hadn’t expected this. I stood there silently after our lips parted.

“What was that?” I asked, like an idiot.

“Something nice before we go to war, I’m used to these army boys. You’ve been a breath of fresh air” She smiled, “Have fun. Be safe.” Then she turned on her heels and walked away after Sam.

My brow was still furrowed when I joined Jack and Keg in the dropship. They both still hadn’t wiped the smirks from their faces. “Where did that come from,” I asked, looking at them accusatorially.

“She said the other day that she thought you were cute. Like a Bambi,” Keg laughed, “Those sisters are a bit crazy, but at least they’re nice to look at,” He said.

I looked out of the ship's doors and across the loading bay at Mia as she climbed the ramp into theirs. Keg had a point, she was nice to look at, athletic, fierce and dangerous, far from what I was used to.

“Fuck sake,” Jack said, frowning as he looked at me. “Now he is going to be all smitten. Going to have to have a word to Mia about timing,” he complained to Keg.

I shook my head. We were going into battle. I closed my eyes for a second, remembering the feeling of sand under my bare feet. The smell of dust and blood, the pain of a hard fight, the sight of Sindi’s body on the ground. When I opened my eyes again they were cold and serious, the feeling of Mia’s lips on mine forgotten.

“Nah. He’s good.” Keg said, watching me. Jacks frown remained.

Every atmospheric reentry I had experienced so far had been relatively smooth. In the dutchess, it had even been comfortable. This time it was anything but smooth. The Shuttle shook violently, Jerking us from side to side and it darted around, trying to avoid the fire from the anti-air. Everyone looked calm and relaxed, but despite Razah reassuring us that the drop ship had more than sufficient armour and shielding to withstand anything the Chinese army could send our way, Jack, Keg and I still gripped the seat bolsters with white knuckles. We watched in awe through the window as The Explorer began rapid-firing thousands of tubes from its side.

“I thought we weren’t going to bombard from orbit,” Jack said, squinting to make out what the tubes were. One zipped past the dropship, and it looked like a six-foot long metal pill, the width of a person.

“They aren’t rockets,” Razah said.

They weren’t people were they? I thought stunned.

“They are the bots, Basic assault robots, we drop them from orbit, its easier than loading thousands of them into dropships. I can’t even describe how much of a headache that is,” the woman beside Razah explained, seeing our look of worry for what or whoever was in the tubes.

“Fuck sake. We’re being targeted by their F.O.B Anti-Air. We need to do a smoke and dive. Scinner, Get the release.” Alaria called from the front of the dropship, leaning forward to speak to the pilot.

There was a groan from the troops and one woman even began complaining that she, “would be sick if they did this again.”

“A Smoke and dive?” I called out to Razah over the noise. The ship violently jerking to the side as something exploded against the shields. “We’re not crashing are we?” I struggled to keep the worry from my voice. Jumping from the upper atmosphere was better than this. I thought as another rocket hit the ship.

Razah Grimased and grabbed the handles over his head. “Not quite. But hold on, this always gets messy.”