There was so much to be done. Her father left so many questions unanswered. The office was cosy and the team was sweet but...

Adeladia Tempish sighed as she rustled through musty old papers. Half of what she read was older than her! Partial theories, incomplete ideas and half spun thoughts. She had gained access to her father's encrypted files. He was on the verge of something but she couldn't tell what. "Argh!" Ade grunted as she banged her head against the desktop.

"Any progress?" A voice from afar timidly inquired. It was Iris. She tiptoed into the office and sat herself down atop of the desk. A warm hand patted down stray hairs on Ade's head.

"Apotheosis is..." Ade paused to consider. "Self genetic manipulation."

"Huh?" Iris jokingly grunted.

"Somehow, using a specific procedure, Apotheosis allows a person to change something within themselves. What that thing is, or how they do it is a secret my father took to the grave." Ade explained. She rustled through the papers on her desk. "Here." She said, handing Iris a document. "What do you make of it?"

"A formula?" Iris thought aloud. "The aspect notes suggest it is a catalyst of some kind?"

"Yes!" Ade agreed. "I found a blueprint, errm..." She dug around her papers for a moment before producing a schematic. "Here! It looks to me like-"

"A needle?" Iris interrupted.

"Exactly. Whatever Apotheosis is, it was injected into the subject and would then begin a reaction within the body. The only question is..." She opened for Iris to finish the thought.

"What is it reacting with?" Iris finished. The two stood in contemplative silence.

"We need to figure out what this, 'genetic will' is. If we can formulate this, or atleast gather some idea of what it is... Who knows the limits of this 'self modification'?"

The notes referred to 'genetic will' several times. It seemed to Ade like the fuel behind the reaction caused by Apotheosis. With a catalyst and fuel source, the reaction would hopefully become self-evident.

"Argh" Ade grunted again. Her head returned, with a firm thud, to the old oak desk. Iris laughed and stroked the back of Ade's head.

"Ads... It's been days. Go for a walk. Clear your head." Iris suggested.

"There is much to be done. I've only just begun." Ade protested. Iris looked at her with a worried scowl. She stood and grabbed her wrist communicator from her desk.

"Lara, darling. Are you there?" She signalled. Ade fell into her papers. She knew Iris had some plan to drag her away from her work.

"Yoohoo." Lara sang as she poked her head through the office door.

"Lara Black... What the hell are you wearing?" Iris asked with audible disappointment.

"What?" Lara blushed. "I just woke up?" She walked into view and waved to Ade. She wore a bright orange tank top with putrid green sweatpants. In place of her elegant white combat mask, Lara had hastily wrapped a deep purple scarf around her face. Her hair stuck out in all directions as if she had just walked through a wind tunnel. It was an ensemble that left all around in awe, if only for all the wrong reasons.

"It's four thirty." Iris pointed out.

"I'm in recovery!" Lara insisted. Iris looked at her, a mix of pity; peturbance and slight adoration encompassed her.

"Get dressed." She insisted as she took Lara's hand. "Sort this... Mop, out." She rustled her hand through Lara's hair and laughed. "And take Ade out somewhere."

"Does Ade get a say in this?" Lara joked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, do I?" Ade called from behind her desk.

"Cute." Iris said, pushing Lara out towards her bedroom.

Half an hour passed and Ade had made no progress before Lara returned. She looked like another human being all together. Her hair was neatly held in a high bun, she wore a delicate and intricately positioned scarf over her face. Her eyes were perfectly lined, her eyebrows; perfectly shaped. She wore a leather half-jacket and a set of dark, loose cargo pants over a pair of black and pink combat boots. She seemed to stand taller, prouder. "Are we ready then, sweetie?" Lara asked. Ade didn't move for a moment until she felt the icy stare of Iris Commons digging into her. She quickly rose and left ahead of Lara.

"I'll see you later" Lara said as she departed.

"You kids have fun!" Iris called out.

"So... Ade?" Lara began. She spoke awkwardly as they walked along the corridor. Ade looked at her. She wanted to make conversation with the white haired woman but realised she didn't know how to. It seemed so effortless for Lara. She chatted away with the entire squad. She made jokes and provided insights. Ade wasn't like that. She simply wasn't wired for 'chatter'.

"Food?" Lara offered. Ade wasn't hungry, Iris had been forcing her to eat none stop, but she didn't want to decline and appear unwilling to spend time with Lara.

"I- have eaten." Ade admitted.

"Okay... Anything you wanna get up to?" Lara kept trying to create a connection, Ade could feel it.

"I- anything you wish to." Ade said. Lara plonked down on the couch in the Raptor common area. "What would you be doing if I wasn't here?" Ade asked.

"Well... It's five o'clock on a Tuesday, so..." Lara considered deeply. "Probably getting drunk with Reese."

"Drinking, now?" Ade asked, shock apparent in her tone.

"Yeah, but Iris told me I'm not allowed to get you drunk. A bit hypocritical if you ask me. She and Reese did much worse at your age." Lara laughed.

"But how can you drink so early on a Tuesday?" Ade asked.

"Well, I'm Welsh and he's... An alcoholic. It just kinda works out." She said.

"Can I ask you a question, Ade?"

"Yes."

"You don't really speak much."

"That's not a question."

"No..." Lara conceded with a giggle. "I suppose not. Okay, why don't you speak much?"

"I speak on what I know. I hold my tongue on what I don't." Ade answered.

"But I'm not asking your opinion on a matter of scholarly debate. What about a chat, just us girls?" Lara pressed.

"Well... I suppose you are a matter of which I know little. I do not know what to speak of." Ade answered as honestly as she could. It was a difficult subject to express but she did want to try bridging the gap between herself and Lara.

"Hmm." Lara mumbled. "That's true, isn't it? You don't know us." She pondered. "Let's change that!" Lara took Ade by the hand and dragged her the short distance to the Barracks.

They stopped at the nearest door and Lara violently pounded on it. "Arch!" She shouted. The door slid open and the tall Maori man stood. His short black hair was slicked back and carefully secured in place. He wore a necklace of red and brown beads and a bracelet in the same fashion. His rough beige shirt reminded Ade of a pirate. It was dirty and musky. The three loose buttons exposed the top of his chest and suggested he was covered in circular tattoos.

"Oy,Oy! Enough of the racket! Where's the fire?" He grumbled as he leant on the door. "Ah, Kia ora Ade. How are you?" He asked upon noticing her.

"I'm well. Thank you." Ade answered stiffly.

"Arch. I'm giving her a formal introduction to the squad. Say hi, properly." Lara said as she tried to sneak a look behind him. "Do... You have company?" She asked.

"Hi, sergeant!" A man meekly shouted out from within the cabin. Lara's grin grew so wide, it nearly burst her mask.

"Oya, nothing like that. Dirty bugger. We are playing chess." Archi protested.

"Mhmm. I'm sure." Lara teased.

"Argh, enough of that. You! Out!" Archi called into the room, whereupon a soldier walked out holding a complete chess set. He nodded and Lara nodded back, her grin never wavering.

"Right. Come on in, ladies!" Archi beckoned. They walked into his bunk. Archi, it seemed, was a man of two faces. On one half of the room lay a workshop. Parts were scattered and disorganised. A dozen started projects were hidden away 'to be finished later'. An entire engine block sat on a table against the wall.

On the other half of the room lay a computer setup of impressive proportions. It seemed to Ade that Archi was something of an avid gamer. Above his computer, hung against the brown wavy walls, was a surfboard. Unpainted and rough. It seemed he had made it himself.

"Welcome, to my humble abode. Mi casa es tu casa, or whatever those Frenchies yap on about." Archi introduced. "So... What can I tell ya?" He asked. Ade stood silent. She didn't know what to ask.

"His name is Aricci Mason." Lara said as she moved to sit on his bed. "He grew up in Tauranga, New Zealand. He doesn't bite." She said as she patted the bed beside herself, beckoning for Ade to sit beside her.

"Yup, pure Maori Kiwi." Archi confirmed.

"It's not what I would expect a Maori man to be named?" Ade asked.

"No?" Archi asked. "I suppose not. But hey, it's a pretty great name all the same, yeah?" He said with a smile. "Is there anything in specific you'd like to know?" He nudged.

"I- What is your job?" She asked.

"Well, i'm the greatest pilot about! I fly a lot. Sometimes I'm a medic."

"Mostly he's moral support." Lara joked.

"I make a damn fine cheerleader!" He agreed. Ade laughed a little.

"You surf?" Ade asked, motioning to the board.

"I do. I'll teach you, if you like. Well, next beach mission."

"I have been begging for a beach mission for weeks!" Lara frustratedly shouted.

"Nah, Reese is like a vampire these days. He'd burn alive in all that sun." Archi laughed.

"When did you join Raptor?" Ade asked. She worried she was sounding like an interviewer more so than a friend. She listened to the effortless banter that flowed between the two soldiers and felt more awkward than ever.

"Oh, well. It must have been..." Archi sat and considered. "Well it was December, 2170 so... Five years? Yeah, cos Lazza joined up two years later; just after Albert died."

"Is this really my third year?" Lara stressed. "I still remember the marines. Thank fuck I got out of there." She reminisced.

"You were a marine?" Ade asked.

"Two years, yeah. Signed on when I was eighteen. Twenty-two now." Lara said. She was clearly uncomfortable thinking of her days as infantry.

"I thought... Well Iris told me that you and Reese were siblings. I assumed you would be put straight into Raptor?" Ade admitted.

"So did everyone else." Lara said with clear resentment. "When my family died, Reese took me in. He and... Iris, are family, even if not by blood but Reese despises nepotism. He refused to recommend me for special forces. He trained me to be the best but he made it as hard as he could for me. He wanted me to be a civilian. To stay away from the military life, so I ended up as a private in a marine unit. I had to prove myself just like everyone else. Eventually, the Arbiter herself recommended me to join Raptor."

"What did he want you to do instead?" Ade asked. A gregarious laugh bellowed from Archi.

"She'd have been a cave-man if the army didn't take her."

"Er, no." Lara quickly replied. "I don't know what I would have been? After my Dad died, the military just seemed like my destiny. You know?"

Ade did know. Her fate was sealed from the day her father introduced her to science. It was a way to bond with him, feel close with her only remaining family. She nodded at Lara. She didn't know the words to agree with her but did know how she felt.

"Why did you sign on, Aricci?" Ade chose to ask instead. He paused to consider.

"Have you ever flown?" He finally asked. "I mean, actually flown yourself?" She hadn't. She expressed as much. "Never? Not even in your mother's plane?" He asked. She had forgotten she told him and Lara the story of her mother's scrapyard propeller plane. Mostly, she was caught off guard that he had cared enough to remember it. "No. When she died, we never took it out of it's hangar. I never touched the controls."

"A shame." Archi bemoaned. "I grew up by the sea. The war didn't hit us in New Zealand, you see? I guess it didn't show up on ministry maps. Typical." He laughed. "Every night, once the sun set, me and all my sibling would sneak out of the house and head straight for the beach. We'd be up till... Deus knows what time. Lets just say, I got very used to only having five or six hours sleep." He sat there for a moment, caught in a tide of memories.

"You'd go surfing?" Ade intuited.

"Aye." He confirmed. "In those waves, I knew true freedom. It was Paradise. Well, at least for a while. When I was fifteen..." He choked. " When I was fifteen, there was an attack. It seemed Matias Malthines had figured out there was an island aside from Australia. The invasion was quick, we had no real way of defending ourselves. Just like that - two weeks later - my home was Ministry jurisdiction. They took my home, Tauranga, and turned it into a stack. BANTAG, they christened it. A military port to stage their ships during the Polynesian campaigns. My beautiful blue waves... Stained red with the blood of my kin. Paradise lost, as Iris would say. I signed on with the Alliance soon after. They set me up as an engineer but it wasn't for me. Bound to a single base, to a single job? Nah, not for me. So I trained as a pilot. The second I sat behind the yolk of that first jet, I knew. My fate was to die in that seat; I wouldn't have it anyother way!"

"So then you joined Raptor?" Ade asked. She was entranced in his words. She had wrote him off as a simple soldier, naught more than a grunt with a sense of humour.

"Well, about ten years of experience came first. I was a dogfighter, a cargo hauler; even the Arbiter's personal ferryman. Thats where Garrison found me. She and he were talking in the back of my transport - It was a luxury ride, armoured but slow - when all of a sudden, at least fifty..."

"Twelve." Lara interrupted.

"At least thirty..." Archi corrected. "missiles came from absolutely nowhere!"

"What did you do?" Ade asked with fearful excitement.

"Well!" Archi began like a schoolboy telling tall tales of impossible happenings. "I ducked and weaved through them. Dodged and rolled, skipped and pounced!"

"Crashed and burned, too." Lara added.

"You crashed?" Ade questioned, shock so pervasive she was nearly shouting.

"Look, technically yes. But!" He began. "I only got clipped by one! I saved the day, and the Arbiter, and got promoted for my trouble. That's when Garrison offered me a job! Been a Raptor ever since." He said proudly. He lifted his left sleeve to reveal a sigil, three claw marks in a green and black shield. The sigil of Raptor squad. Lara did the same, lifting her sleeve and revealing her own tattoo. They shared a laugh.

They left Archi to his own devices. They had a whole squad to introduce and daylight was burning. The next door opened before they even reached it. The titan of a man, Garrison, stood towering over the two women. "Sergeant! Come in, I require your aids!" He called out.

"Aid, Bernie. You require my aid." Lara corrected flatly. Her shoulders dropped and Ade thought she looked on the verge of tears as she walked into Garrison's bunk.

Ade's nose burnt. The room was somewhat larger than Archi's and had fake wooden paneling from red carpeted floor to brown tiled roof. In the middle of the room was a large cooking pot over an artificial fire. Some concoction brewed away and Ade found herself thinking of as an old enemy as she shifted away. A full gym was laid out beside the temporary kitchen. Weights, racks and balls were neatly organised by size along the wall. Ade doubted she could even lift the lightest of the weights and thought even Lara would struggle. "Spot me will you?" Garrison asked of Lara. He sat on a metal bench and lifted two weights over his shoulders. Each weighed nearly twice what Ade did. Lara placed her hand beneath his elbows and told him to start. He did. A great huff and greater grunt sprang from his lips. He got to five reps before he even seemed to struggle, then he completed three more. After he was complete he immediately lay down on another bench and began to press two more weights out from his chest.

"Erm, sir?" Lara tried to begin.

"Yes?" Garrison huffed between reps.

"I was hoping we could formally introduce ourselves to Ade... Tell her a little about each other?" Lara somewhat timidly suggested.

"Ah!" He sat up and panted for a moment. "Of course, where is she?" He said, standing to full height.

"Right here, commander?" Lara answered, pulling Ade closer to herself. Garrison laughed; his gut wobbled when he laughed, a side effect of such stature Ade supposed.

"I didn't see you there, child. My apologies!" He said with a bow. "I tend to look over people often, not by ignorance - I assure you - but due to most of you being simply below my peripheries. Again, I apologise."

"It's okay, sir." Ade said. She wasn't surprised he couldn't see her. The man truly was a giant in every sense. He made dwarfs of them all, but her most of all.

"How tall are you sir?" Ade asked. He laughed.

"I, in my hayday, was 210cm. Now? Closer to 206."

"You were taller?" Ade asked, wide eyed and a little horrified.

"They didn't call me Heracles for nothing." He bragged.

"They call you Heracles?" Ade asked with a grin. His beaming pride in his title made the great titan look somewhat childish in her eyes. It was almost endearing.

"Aye! All of Raptor have codenames. You will likely receive one eventually." He told her, still grinning.

"I was thinking 'Wonder kid'." Lara joked.

"I've heard worse." Garrison replied.

"I- No." Ade sighed at the idea of being called 'Wonder kid' for the rest of her life. "What about the rest of the squad?" She asked.

"Well..." Garrison began. "I am Heracles, Reese is Sole, Iris is... Well, Iris. Archi is Gunther and Lara is, erm-" Garrison hesitated. He knew Lara wanted him to shut up.

"Sparky." Lara whispered in a tone of shame usually reserved for admissions of infidelity or murder. Garrison erupted into laughter. His revelrous chortle nearly shook the floor upon which he stood.

"Sparky?" Ade confirmed. She could see no great reason for such shame. She had heard Iris and Reese refer to her as Sparks a few times already.

"Yeah. On my first opp, Reese had my code switched from Dagger to Sparky and it ended up sticking. I'm still not over it." Lara said verging on genuine tears. "What if I get promoted? Lieutenant Sparky, Commander Sparky! It sounds like a crappy kids cartoon."

"I mean... Is it really as bad as Gunther?" Ade asked. She realised she was trying to comfort Lara.

"That's just it! He chose Gunther! He used to be Flyboy!" She shouted.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Why would he change it?" Ade asked.

"He said it was too obviously him, that it defeated the purpose of a code name. Which... Fair enough, I guess." She said.

"But why Gunther?" Ade pushed.

"For me." Garrison said. "He believed that hostiles would believe I, as a German, would be entitled 'Gunther'. They would target him instead of me should a communication be intercepted."

"Oh... Well that's sweet, I guess?" Ade said to which Garrison smiled. Lara sulked for a while off to the side.

"Commander?" Ade asked. "Did you fight in the old war?"

His face grew grim. His smile faded and his shoulders slumped.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me if it's difficult." Ade intuited.

"No, child. I did fight. More than that, I won." Garrison's voice dropped low. It took the coarseness and gravitas a man of his age ought to speak with.

"You won? I thought we lost every battle?" Ade recalled.

"Yes. Humanity was defeated in every battle. That's why Raptor was created. To win without battles. We struck hard and fast; struck key points to cripple the Martian war efforts. One squad couldn't turn the tide of the war, though. The war was lost from the first shot fired."

"If you don't mind me asking... What was it like - when it ended?" Ade asked hesitantly. He considered and even Lara pulled in closer.

"We knew it was coming. The Martians had beaten us at every turn. Still... When Malthines pressed that button - dropped those bombs." He took a breath and steadied his mind. "I heard eight billion human beings die in an instant. Their screams carried on nuclear wind. I thought seeing so many die in the war would prepare me, but... Nothing prepares you for the end of the world. A part of me wanted to die with them... I lost more than a war. I lost my Blake." Tears welled and Lara placed a tiny hand on his giant shoulder.

"We had no idea that Matias planned to create the barrier. We had no idea he had that kind of technology. I thought we would be trapped underground for generations, or at least until the Martians launched another assault. It was the only time of my life I felt genuinely hopeless. I learnt a lesson that day: Even at the end of everything, fight. Keep fighting until you win or you die. Keep fighting for one more day. Fight for Paradise."

"A day till Paradise." Lara recited. Garrison chuckled. He stood tall again.

"Now... I am an old man. I ask you to leave me to my memories. I will be here if you require my aids." He said with a warm smile.

"Aid, Bernie. Require your aid." Lara corrected again, gently patting him on the back as she exited.

"Thank you, Commander." Ade said as she followed behind Lara. He closed the door without a word.

"When I said get to know us, I thought we'd be swapping funny stories. Not... that?" Lara said with an awkward laugh.

"I'm sorry." Ade answered. She hoped she hadn't gone too far. She realised she wanted the squad to like her. She wanted to be like them. Calm and experienced, friendly and kind. A family. Fucked up as they were.

"Don't be silly. I'm joking" Lara quickly said. Ade looked at her. She was beautiful. Not like Iris, all elegant and graceful. Quite the opposite in fact. Ade thought Lara's beauty was in the flaws she wore so openly. She was slightly awkward, as friendly as she tried to be. She was brash and somewhat childish, hells, she even killed without consideration but it didn't seem to matter to Ade. It made no sense. Had they met a year ago, Ade would have ran for the hills after a single conversation with any member of the squad. Now? It was endearing to her. She heard the tales of casual fun and petty jokes amidst the chaos and death of this war that had taken her entire family from her - and instead of being insulted or afraid of the sociopathy - she wanted to be their friend.

She remembered what Reese had told her. "The sooner you stop thinking of us as the good guys and them as the bad guys, the sooner you can help us." It made more sense to her. These were soldiers. People who spent each second of every day surrounded by, and steeped in, death. They all had a sort of 'If I die, so be it' attitude. They took no pleasure in killing, maybe they had been good people in previous lives? Maybe the world had forced them to disconnect from the horrors they had committed in honour of this 'Paradise'.

An outreached hand awoke her from her thoughts. Callused and hardened but gentle and clean. Lara.

"Come on, sweetie. One more." She said. Ade took her hand. She really was stronger than she looked. A young woman, only six years her senior and barley two inches taller, yet there were worlds between them. The daughter of a Russian scientist and the Mack sergeant. But here, in this hallway, they could be sisters. She wished they were sisters. Someone to trust and hold dear amidst all this confusion and chaos. Someone to tell Ade what was the right thing to do, what would keep her safe.

Ade nodded and followed closely behind.

The final door. Recently painted red. The paint spilled over the door handle and looked to be poorly layered. Whoever painted it was far from a professional. Four rhythmic knocks just below the door handle. Ade thought it was a strange way to knock, either it was some code between Lara and the man within or Lara was just a slightly eccentric knocker. A thought almost as strange as the knocking itself. "Oh, Reesey!" Lara sang to the door. "It's time to wake up!" She continued to sing. A heavy thud marked movement within. An audible, and clumsy, scramble heralded the opening of the door. "Oh, Sparks. You okay?" The man said from behind the door. His eyes were glassy and his hair a mess. He had just crawled out of bed.

"Yup. Introducing Ade to everyone. You free?" She asked. He looked around before settling his gaze on Ade.

"Now's not the best time. I'm hopped up on pain meds, I'm not really all here." He admitted.

"Okay. Is Iris getting you food later?" She asked.

"Iris?" He asked before his dulled eyes fell on Ade again. "Oh, yeah. Don't worry about me. You kids have fun." He mumbled.

"I'll pop by later on, make sure you're okay." Lara told him as she started away.

"Don't worry, kid." He said, sliding down the door somewhat.

Lara turned away but Ade's eyes lingered a while longer. She saw him straighten out as he closed the door. She saw deeper into his room, a framed picture and an opened bottle lay on a countertop. All was neatly organised but the photos, they had been thrown and scattered around seemingly in a frantic rage. She couldn't make out what the image held before Reese closed the door. It looked to be a group of people. Himself, maybe? A young woman with red hair and a child with white.

The door creaked shut. She didn't hear him walk back to bed. His usual silent footsteps resumed.

The two walked the old halls together. They ascended the tower and walked the grounds. Ade brushed her hands through the golden fields between rings. She felt the warm breeze stroke her hair back. The setting sun bled through the gaps between rings and mountains. Gold and red and orange flooded the sky and Ade realised; she hadn't been outside since her father passed.

Lara walked up behind her. She placed a caring hand on her shoulder. "Come on." She said. "I wanna show you something."

They walked through the fields together. They walked towards the setting sun until a small craft descended to escort them. The fields sprawled out beneath them. Farmers and tractors dotted the vast fields and small specs of reflected sunlight marked metal sprinklers neatly lined along the way. The trip was short, maybe a minute or two. They landed on the furthest wall and Lara led her through sentries and soldiers. Half stopped to salute, half were too deep in conversation to notice them.

They weaved between white pillars that Lara told her were signal boosters. They hopped over a small wall and across a mesh floor overlooking a massive drop. Ade looked deep within, at the bottom of the dark abyss was a river of some kind. It flowed towards the central tower with great haste. A fan span gently above it. A mill of some kind. They crossed the mesh and landed in a small gated area. Nothing lay but a ladder going up a great mast. It took longer for her to climb the ladder than it had the shuttle to surmount the colossal walls.

Atop was a small nest of kinds. A roof, a desk and a hole cutout in beneath it. Sandbags lay against the hole, a sniper nest but more than that. There was a bean bag, a pair of headphones and posters. Next to the small sniper perch was a framed photo. Ade knelt to look at it. It was of Lara and another woman. Dark haired and pale; she wore strange and fanciful red and green clothes. A dress thick enough for winter, platform boots for getting buried in snow.

"Grace." Lara whispered as she finished climbing the ladder. "That's her name."

"Her clothes, they look familiar?" Ade said. Lara took the photo from her and looked it over with adoration.

"It was christmas. She put on her 'sunday best'." She reminisced. "She's from Siberia. That's probably why you recognise the clothes." Her eyes were warm, she was happy in thoughts of this girl. "But that's not why I brought you up here though." She said, her tone picking up noticeably.

Lara pulled from her pack a large case and placed it on the table in front of them. She opened it to reveal a series of parts and pieces. Ade would have no idea what she was looking at had she not already seen it put together. It was her rifle.

"It's called Hou Yi and I'm gonna show you how to shoot." She said with a wink.

It took Lara astonishingly little time to piece together all of the intricate pieces that made up her gun. She was clearly well practiced at taking it apart and putting it back together. It was unreasonably large upon completion. Couldn't have been an inch shorter than Ade. It was heavy too. It was no wonder Lara was so much more muscled than she was. Even still, it had to be laid down to shoot. They set it up beneath the desk, atop the sandbags.

"Put these on." Lara said, offering a pair of pink and black earphones. "To protect your ears." Ade put them on. They fit easily over her ears, and muffled everything outside.

"What about you?" Ade asked. Lara smiled through her mask and moved her hair behind her ear. There was a small, skin coloured device in them.

"My comm doubles up as a protector."

"But if I can hear you talking, surely they won't block out a gunshot?" Ade asked.

"It wont. The shot will still be pretty bloody loud, but the peak - the loudest part - will be dulled. Basically: Wear these, loud sound goes quiet; don't wear them, everything goes quiet... Cos' you'll be deaf." She said as she adjusted Ade's headphones. "You can keep these, you know. They are bound to come in useful."

"Oh, thank you."

Lara lay on her belly and shifted aside to let Ade into the small nest. She joined her and looked out to the horizon. The sun was shallow now, it fell to her right and cast long shadows down the crater the towers were nestled within. "Take this." Lara said as she adjusted the rifle. Ade shifted into the gun and pressed her shoulder into the stock. "Put your hand here." Lara said as she guided Ade's fingers. "Rule one: finger off the trigger." She said as she placed Ade's hand on the grip. "Rule two: It's always loaded. It is always dangerous. Even though I haven't put any bullets into it yet, you need to act as if I have."

"Got it." Ade confidently confirmed. Her serious tone brought a small laugh to Lara.

"Rule three: Know what you are shooting at and what's behind it. These are big bullets, they will go through." She paused and looked at Ade's form. She patted her on the back as she stood to take something from her pack.

Ade took a look through the scope. It was strange, everything was just a little warped. The bounds of its view were dark and if Ade lay her cheek too low, she couldn't see anything through it. Lara returned with a small black box and a pair of binoculars. She lay flat and placed the box by Ade.

"Take that and slide it in." She ordered. Ade did. It fit perfectly and smoothly. Lara pointed to a bolt on the side of the gun. "This is a special gun. It can be fired in Semi-automatic or bolt-action. I'm going to show you bolt-action. It just means that after every shot, you will need to pull this lever backwards and forwards. Okay?" She asked.

"What is the difference?" Ade asked. She felt as though she should ask something, in truth she didn't care as long as she got to shoot something. A strange feeling of power resided within the weapon. A sense of control and precision she had lacked since the attack.

"Oh, the bolt-action mode is meant for precision shooting with specialty rounds. Semi is just for general rapid shooting."

"Specialty rounds?" Ade repeated.

"Yuh, these." Lara said as she presented a green tipped, excessively large bullet. "Low load, makes it a bit easier to manage while you're learning." She pulled out her binoculars and looked out to the fields before them.

"Wall command, come in." She said into her comm. A voice came back. Ade could hear it through her headphones.

"Go for command." A man replied.

"Going for some range test with a recruit. Point eight. Twelve rounds, no alert. Copy?" She said. A few seconds passed before they received a response. "Got it. Send over Auth code."

Lara sighed. Her head drooped. "Sparky Sixty-nine." She mumbled.

"Repeat trooper, didn't quite copy that." The command responded, barely masking a laugh.

"Command, go fuck yourself." Lara calmly answered. A laugh rang out over the comm line, a man and a woman. "Copy that. Authorised, happy hunting Sergeant Black." The woman said.

"Thank you kindly." Lara finished. "Free to go babes, safety off and have at it." She said as she flicked a small switch on the gun.

Ade pulled back on the bolt, it slid smoothly along and back into place. Lara knocked it down, more to check it than anything. "What am I shooting?" Ade asked as she moved her head closer to the scope. Lara placed a hand on Ade's forehead and pushed her back from the scope. She fiddled with the cheek rest, raising it to be more comfortable for her. "There's a bunch of little green men out there, find and shoot them." Lara said as she looked out.

Ade scanned the environment. It was difficult, the rifle was too heavy to make major adjustments or move it around greatly. "How do you find anything with this thing?" Ade asked. Lara scruffed her head. "I tend not to." She said with a laugh. "That's what a spotter is for."

Lara pressed a button on her binoculars and looked back through them. Ade noticed that through her scope, a laser line shot out wherever Lara looked. She followed the laser to a small cardboard cut out of an alien off in the distance. Ade zoomed her scope in on the target, centred the crosshair onto it's chest and fired. She could see the bullet travel for a moment. A small white light tracing across the darkening sky. It wasn't flying where she had aimed, though. It began to drop and drift left. By the time it landed, it was clear four hundred meters.

"Damn, good start." Lara complemented.

"I missed."

"The target is four clicks out, against the wind. You were never going to hit it. That rifle may be designed to hit a pinhead at ten miles but that takes years of training and plenty of extra kit." Lara explained.

"Why didn't it go where I aimed?" Ade asked.

"You didn't adjust. The scope thinks you are shooting two kilometers away, not three. On the side, there" Lara pointed to a little dial on the scope and Ade twisted it an extra notch.

"It fell to the side, the wind did this?"

"No. Good guess though. The wind is blowing towards us, it will slow your bullet but won't shift it."

"Then why did it go left?"

"We are shooting south." Lara said as if it explained anything.

"What?"

"I thought you were a scientist." Lara joked. Ade had no idea what she was talking about. "Well..." Lara began with a deep breath. "The Earth spins, but the bullet flies so the bullet isn't affected by the spin anymore. It just flies straight. Since we are affected by the spin it looks like it bends to the side. We are shooting south so it bends to the left. It's called the Coriolis effect and it's a pain in the arse." She explained.

"Oh." Ade grunted in surprise. "I... Didn't think there would be science involved in shooting?"

"I make it look effortless, don't I?" Lara said with a sly wink. "Come on, I'll guide you through it."

They carried on deep into dark. Ade was determined to hit a target. She would study the shot a dozen times. Write down the calculations and trigonometry using formulae and tricks Lara taught her. She fired nine shots and missed each. She wasn't deterred. She was getting closer each time. The hot blast of air each time she squoze the trigger never ceased to frighten her, make her flinch. Lara told her that her instructor would force her to run a kilometer with her rifle everytime she flinched in training. Apparently she got very good at running.

"Breathe." Lara whispered as she noticed Ade get frustrated. "Two more shots." She said.

Ade loaded a round and looked through her scope. She calculated the range, drop off, wind speed, rotational drift. Even the different air pressures. She took a deep breath, emptied her lungs as fully as she could and placed her finger on the trigger. A slight adjustment to height, slightly more to the right. Aim small; miss small. Aim for the shine in his eye, that way if she missed she would still hit his face. Pull. Bang. She flinched again.

The bullet travelled, it felt longer than the others despite being the closes range yet. It began to drift left and drop. It cleared past the eye long before it reached. It drifted lower and Ade gave up, she thought it would miss.

It didn't.

Through her scope she saw the little green man with a hole in his neck.

"Haha!" Lara shouted. "Tell me I'm not the best teacher!" She gloated as she put a giddy hand on Ade's shoulder.

"I did it?" Ade asked in disbelief.

"Hell yeah, you did!"

"Shit..." Ade laughed.

"I think that is the first time i've heard you swear... Worth it." Lara joked. Ade joined her in laughing and a time passed in small celebration.

"You know the challenge now, right?" Lara asked.

"No?"

"Once is luck, twice is skill. Hit it again."

She was right. Same drill as last time. Calculate, breathe, aim... Fire. Much quicker this time, much more confidence. She saw the bullet fly, make its way to its mark.

"What the fuck is that?" Lara mumbled as she looked to the horizon. "Give me the rifle." She ordered. Ade didn't protest, though she wanted to see if her shot landed.

Lara stood. She brought the rifle atop of the desk and looked out to the mountain. Her smile drained and her tone dropped.

"Get back to the office." She ordered.

"Why?" Ade questioned. She was worried, Lara's tone had frightened her.

"Command come in." Lara said as she looked through her scope and loaded a new magazine.

"Go for command." The same man responded.

"Sergeant Black, Titan class south-south east of point eight. Send recon immediately." She said. "Ade, go!" She said.

"Repeat, Sergeant. It sounded like you said Titan class?" The man asked.

"Confirmed. Send recon to check, initiate code red." She ordered. Ade had started down the ladder when the alarms began to blair and jets buzzed overhead. Lara came down the ladder after her and the two got back into the same shuttle as before.

"What is going on?" Ade asked. Lara turned to her, grimly, as they raced towards the central tower.

"It's the ministry. They're attacking."