A CHORUS OF BULLETS

"Casius Upe, I'm not going anywhere with you!" A fair skinned young lady stood with her knuckles at her hips, her eyes gave the dead scolding stare that only a woman could give, even one as young as herself.

"Eva..." Casius, a stalky young man, who was trying his very best to keep his voice down, and hopefully that of his girlfriend's, "I don't feel this is the best time, can we wait til we've left?" He wasn't sure how he had gotten himself into this argument, but it was distracting him from a stack of unfinished flapjacks. He reached for her, hoping to receive her hand so they could leave the diner without continuing this scene any further. Eva's lips pursed for a moment before gradually becoming a rosy smile.

"What's the matter; you can't say it in public?" Casius's face ran flush as he snatched her hand away from her hip and snapped Eva's entire body closer to him. He spoke, moving his lips, but keeping his teeth tightly shut.

"My muv mou..."

"What?" She leaned closer, mocking as if she couldn't hear him.

"I love you."

"I'm sorry, you re mumbling."

"I love you!" He snapped, immediately regretting to not check his tone first. Eva, shocked by the outburst at first quickly began to smile, with a mix of excitement and bare happiness. A red faced Casius lead Eva outside the diner in hurried steps. "You can be very trying at times."

She gives a girlish giggle, "What can I say, I'm too cute." leaning in a bit closer, "But when you're all fidgety, I think that's even cuter." Their eyes close and lips meet.

"Casius..." The kiss becomes cold, as if to be kissing bare frost.

-- Casius.

His eyes refuse to open.

-- Corporal!

Reflex Region, Eastern Europe - February 7th, 2157

The rattling tremors from a nearby explosion shook Corporal Casius Upe back into consciousness. His eyes were blurry from liquid, though he couldn't tell if it was from his eyes or melted frost. He wiped his eyes inspecting it the best he could, blood. As his surroundings came into focus, Casius could see this same blood smeared across the cockpit's monitor. It was then he could feel a migraine working its way between his left eye and temple. Wiping away at the blood across his face, he caught hold of a gash just above his eye with his middle and pointer finger. He ran his pointer through it guessing it was probably longer than the finger in it.

-- Corporal!

Casius's ears were still ringing, he still hadn't gotten his bearings and the loud pitch of the radio was just too much.

-- Snow-Seven respond!

It took a moment to figure up and down, studying the way his dogtags hung against his chin it was a simple guess that he was definitely down. He kissed his pointer and middle finger and delivered them to a small picture of Eva hanging just under his forward monitor.

Always looking out for me, aren't you? Reaching upwards he gripped two handles, each opposite the monitor and gave them a strong tug, then quickly pushed it forward forcing the front-most part of the cockpit to swing upward with a relieving hiss. Casius unclipped his restraints and heaved himself through the mouth of the cockpit.

Casius turned to his right watching a twenty-two foot bulky Battlewalker approached quickly. Its reverse joint legs made the machine sway a bit as it trudged through snow. It was colored with Arganac military standard ash-grey, then dotted with random patches of olive-green. Its upper torso was fortified with thick armor plating with the operator in mind of course. This same necessary plating was also reinforced at its joints, though not in the same bulky fashion. Its upper torso housed a collection of small cameras that couldn't be made out unless you were standing a few feet from them. Swung across its shoulder was a 120mm smoothbore shoulder cannon, not exactly standard issue, but it was always well appreciated.

The apparent fatigue of battle was more than visible from almost any distance. There were several blemishes across its steel mid-section, possibly from small arms fire. One could only imagine how desperate and frightened someone was as the giant grew closer. Fading decals had been crumbling of the face of the machine's shoulder, at one time reading: Battlewalker, series three Jackal; someone would retouch it eventually.

As it neared, its hatch swung open revealing its dark haired operator. "Got damn it Casius, I thought that was it for you." Casius was still a bit fuzzy on what'd happened prior to his blackout, but it came back in short waves. He remembered being ambushed and caught fire from the enemies heavy weaponry, but it was a short fall over an outcropping that forced him down.

"Must've lost my balance when that shell hit the ground near me."

"You're lucky your Walker hit snow, or else you might be dead." McDaniels brought his machine just over the downed unit and leapt down to Casius.

"Don't know if you noticed, but we're surrounded by this shit." Bringing a cloth to Casius's face he applied pressure to his partner forcing him backwards a bit.

"Easy McDaniels." Casius backed away from his partner feeling uncomfortable; he immediately took the cloth from Corporal Henry McDaniels applying the pressure himself. "I got it okay?" Shooting him an uneasy glance, he felt he wasnt familiar with the term personal space, even though they'd been sleeping within a very tight quarters near each other. It didn't help much either that Casius was a smaller frame then McDaniels, the overly touchy athletic brute was said to be easy on the eyes, but uneasy with the ladies; this of course only made Corporal Upe all the more cautious.

"Sorry cupcake..." He joked, "It s only absolutely freezing out here, thought you could use a hand after that fall." He immediately stood up and reached upwards hoisting himself to his cockpit. With his feet secure, he turned back to the young corporal, "can you move it?"

"Yeah, I think so." Casius stood removing the blood dampened cloth to examine his own injury; he gave a short huff as he pressed it again to his temple. "Don't think I can get it out myself though."

McDaniels gave a nod, "I'll call the truck over, it should have a chain to pull you out." He shifted, heading back into his cockpit. Though warmth was escaping out into the cold air, McDaniels seat was almost as warm and as comfortable as when he'd left. "Snow-Three to Snow-Leader, Sarge do you copy?"

-- Go for Snow-Leader.

A voice familiar to McDaniels came through; it had the calming tones of a woman, but retained bark of a soldier. Sergeant Alie Evalium, snow unit's commanding soldier, if only her personality was a beautiful as her voice.

"I've got my hands on our fallen angel here, he's dug in pretty bad, requesting we get the truck over here and dig him out ma'am."

-- Roger that Snow-Three, we re moving on your location now, e.t.a. soon. Stay frosty you two, we still have tangos nearby.

McDaniels eyes ran across the monitor just right of him confirming they re location on radar, it shouldn't be too long. "Roger that ma am, frosty is all we know." The Corporal shuffled towards the edge of the hatch, leaning out just enough to yell; "Get back inside your seat, we may have tangos. "

Casius adjusted himself sliding his lower body easily through the Walker's opening, "All these tangos, and no one to dance with." Even through the radio, Casius could hear McDaniels soft mumble.

"Would you shut up and watch the radar?" McDaniels reached upward yanking down on hatch effectively closing his cockpit shut. Three bright LED monitor gave dim light to an otherwise pitch-black small room, the bulb that'd normally lit the pod was busted, and he hadn't gotten around to replacing it yet. His cockpit like most could easily seat a second operator usually acting as a radar tech, though many squads didn'fft have that luxury. Gripping at his left and right control sticks, he shifts the metal beast 180 and lowered it nearly matching height with Casius's downed unit. "Can you still fire?"

Casius ran his finger across the center monitor bringing up the Walker's functional interface. He quickly examined the major functions: arms, legs, life-support, and armaments. Tapping the touch sensitive screen, he quickly noticed that the right hand still held a 30mm autocannon, with more than seventy-percent of the ammunition remaining. "Sure, as long as my target is to the right of me I should do fine."

"In that case I ll watch your left." Though understanding the seriousness of their situation, they still managed to force a chuckle or two, followed by a long awkward silence.

With this silence dragging on, Casius watched the radar hoping time would just glide on by, his eyes wandered a bit as he blinked to keep blood out of his eyes. "I'm definitely gonna need stitches." His mind began to wander observing the clock while the dripping of water came from a seal in the hatch. Each drip seemed louder than the last, his mind began to wander again.

Ptt... ptt... ptt...

"Stop I mean it!" Eva giggled as she scrambled through bed to get away from Casius who was snapping pictures of her through his camera. She threw the covers toward him buying a moment or two before grabbing a pillow and slamming it against his face.

"Ouch!" Still laughing, "That how it's gonna be?" Casius released the camera letting it swing around his neck and plop against his bare chest. Casius leapt forward grabbing Eva's soft wrist keeping her from tossing anything else at him.

"No, no, no." She continued to giggle as the both of them began to lean backward off the bed; Eva quickly shifted herself making the both of them parallel to the ground. Casius hit the ground just a mere moment before Eva allowing him to absorb most of the shock, whilst Eva used this moment to land atop Casius's upper torso effectively pinning him to the floor. She immediately yanked the camera from around his neck and began taking pictures of her own constantly flashing and blinding Casius.

"How you like that!" Giggling started up once more.

"Okay, okay, I surrender!" Casius blindly reached out yanking the camera away and extended his arms to full-length hoping to keep it out of her reach. Eva instead retaliated by nestling her fingers behind his head and brought their lips together. Casius opened an eye, still allowing his other to adjust, to catch just a glimpse of her short red hair, and just barely able to make out her soft brown eyes. His second eye opened bringing her smile into focus. "If losing is this good, then yeah I'm a loser."

"Do you have to work today?" her tone had suddenly changed, though remained playful; she pouted her lowered lip completing her look.

"Only if we wanna continue eating, but if you're good with eating bread and rice forever, then I'll call in right now." Eva poked at Casius's stomach, and then expanded her cheeks to mock him.

"You eat any less and you'll vanish." Casius stuck his tongue out as he began to press his hands against her. "I'll have you know this is lean muscle." He pushed her upward sliding out from under her. Once to his feet, he inhaled expanding his chest and flexed his arms, though after a few moments he exhaled it away. Very lean muscle mind you. He shifted heading towards the closet.

"Where are you working today?" Eva rolled up and leapt onto the bed.

"I'm doing that wedding shoot today for that Ortiz couple I met last week." Casius shouted from within the closet, struggling to find a decent pair of pants, he smelled it once then tossed them aside. "You can come if you'd like." He pushed a few hanging shirts aside, and became surprised when Eva appeared behind them.

"Are you sure?" She leaned closer towards him, using a closet bar underneath to keep her balance.

"Yes, I'm sure."

-- Corporal!

He leaned forward kissing her before she had the chance to jump him again; they both smiled kissing again, and again.

-- Open fire!

Casius's eyes shot open, blood had run across his face, though it appeared that it had finally stopped bleeding. His eyes quickly adjusted to the light from his monitor, studying it he eyed McDaniels Ashy-Gray Walker on its back, and atop it an enemy unit. Another humanoid type, though the armor was leaner then Arganac mecha, in its hand it bore a large titanium blade, usually your anti-personal last resort. How long had he been out?

"Casius, wake the fuck up and shoot!" It was a Eos, a Walker commonly associated with Ave Alliance, but even raiders got their hands on them from time to time. This particular model was a reconnaissance model, but it looked like it would try its hand at close range as it was persistent to push the blade into McDaniels cockpit.

Casius quickly gripped his right control stick and rose the Walker's corresponding arm several degrees above the ground, resting its crosshairsover the enemy Eos. He hammered down on the trigger spraying countless bullets from the 30mm. Bullets danced across the machine's upper torso skipping a trail along its mid-section, confetti like shrapnel blew into the air trading places with the ammunition which seemed to tear into the inner workings of the mecha. It couldn't take the fire from the 30mm, especially not from this range.

The Walker's arm went limp nearly allowing the blade to slip out of its own hand. McDaniels unit shifted tossing the lifeless machine into the snow, tossing earth and frost into the air when they connected. "Thanks..." Casius's radio came back to life, "...for almost letting me die."

"Hold still!" McDaniels braced Casius's shoulder whilst the squad Medic, Specialist Robert Vyse, was finishing up stitching the gash just above his eyebrow. "Doing this in the field isn't easy, and you're making even harder." The medic shouted as Casius continued to squirm in pain; he didn't quite have the luxury of pain medicine. Casius wasn't too much for pain, nor holding still for that matter.

"You keep this up Cass, you might end up just being a gunner next time." Casius shot him a threatening glance, though he already knew they didn't have any back up operators to replace him, he still didn't enjoy the comment.

"For the last time I'm sorry, I blacked out."

The medic raised his hand over Casius's head to keep him still a moment, then quickly snipped end of the thread finishing up his task. "There, all done." He quickly waved two fingers at Casius signaling him to sit up; he did so shrugging McDaniels off his shoulder. "Your stitches should hold til next time we reach colony-side, but I'm going to advise you take it easy out there Corporal Upe, you might want to avoid piloting until we get home."

Casius examined himself noting his blood stained shirt, and slowly began to remove it. "I'll leave that decision to the Sergeant." Vyse, shook his head briefly just before handing him another shirt. Hastily fitting a new shirt on, he clipped his flak vest over it and lowered himself out the back of the truck. McDaniels turned around giving a quick nod to Vyse before following the Corporal.

"You know, he let you go as a courtesy, he doesn't have to clear you for combat."

Casius huffed, watching as another truck towed his Walker from the snow. "I know, but if the enemy shows up, we'd kind of have no choice, we already lost Vargas, Mahoney, and so many others." Casius cringed a bit listening to the grinding gears of his unit, it was possible some of the components were frozen solid; it would take some time to thaw them, another delay keeping them from port.

"We still have plenty for the enemy to worry about!" The Corporal duo immediately straightened up standing at attention. "If you're gonna bitch this much I should leave you here to make snow angels all fucking day, Hooah!?

"No Sergeant, I was merely expressing concern for our unit, ma'am!" Sergeant Alie Evalium pushed herself between the two soldiers and spun on the ball of her foot looking up to them.

"Sounds like whining to me soldier; I got a daughter back home for that, I don't need that out here!" Her scowl bore into the Corporals, like a thug at gun-point, though the two kept their gaze averted looking upward into nothing. "McDaniels!"

"Ma'am!?"

"Are you finished reloading the ammo on unit seven?"

"No Sergeant, that's the crew's job!"

"That's your unit, you get over there and reload that 120mm, and then you can clean the barrel, by hand by yourself, do I make myself clear!?"

"Yes Sergeant!" McDaniels quickly begins to hustle towards his unit, though quickly shoots Casius a frightening glare before disappearing behind the medical truck.

"Upe!?"

"Ma'am!?"

"Vyse clear you for duty?"

"Yes, Sergeant, I'm heading over to assist in towing my Jackal ma'am."

"Carry on then." She begins heading towards the medical truck's rear.

"Ma'am?"

"Corporal?"

"That squad we ecountered, they were using Titans, those are Ave Alliance Walkers."

"I'm aware of that."

"Didn't we receive similar reports about bandits using Ave Alliance mechs?" He took a step forward, making eye contact. "This would count as the fifth report."

"Last time I checked Corporal, you're not Intel, are you?"

"No Sergeant."

"You're a operator, you re job is to shoot whatever I tell ya, got it!?

"Yes Sergeant!"

"Carry on." Casius exits with a brief salute and turns away from Alie hustling towards the truck towing his machine. Alie makes a slow turn towards the rear of the medical truck and gives a brief knock, getting Specialist Vyse's attention.

"Sergeant, don't worry" Vyse reaches over grabbing an orange transparent tube and gives a simple toss to Alie. "It's already been taken care of. But so you know, that s the last of it til we reach colonyside."

Alie took a sip of water shortly after swallowing two small tablets; she nestled into her cockpit seat taking in a moment to herself. She watched her heavy breaths escape through the open hatch and into the freezing air, even with her flak jacket on she still felt the tightening feeling of goose bumps across her body. Reaching into the open pouch on her jacket she plucked a folded photo and quickly unfolded it with a rub of her thumb. The photo revealed her accompanied by a much smaller variant of the Sergeant.

Alie admired all the similarities her daughter and her shared: the dark hair, though Alie's was cut to ear level, hazel eyes that glowed in even the dimmest of light, and even the freckles gathered around her short nose. She didn't see much of her father s qualities, though perhaps it was easier that way. Her headache was easing away now, thanks to the pills of course, Alie's vision was even starting to focus again.

-- Repairs and reloading on all units are complete ma am, standing by.

Her radio bleeped afterwards, catching her attention. "Alright Snow team we are Oscar-Mike (on the move), McDaniels you take point, Upe and I will hang back and cover the convoy." They all seemed to chime in one after another.

-- Roger that

-- We re Oscar Mike!

Alie gave a tug on the hatch sealing herself inside the cockpit, "If we continue north we should arrive at Colony 2208 in..."

-- Intense heat source detected!

"What!?"

-- Coming in from the east, it s a missile!

The Sergeant yanked at her controls a moment bringing her machine to life, and then hurriedly shoved them forward lowering her unit into the snow. "Everyone get down!" Before she'd even hit the ground herself, a missile appeared from the cover of a tree-line and zipped into the air safely missing the gathered convoy. Henry's Walker swung around facing the treeline and prepared to open fire. A second shell appeared from the east arcing over the treeline and travelled parallel to McDaniels. There was a deafening metallic bang paired with a bright flash as it struck against McDaniels unit, the upper torso seemed to expand just a mere moment before it exploded into all directions. It hung there lifeless for what seemed like a thousand moments before crashing into the earth which only further tore the unit apart.

Casius was the first to break radio silence as he cried aloud. The squad watched as McDaniels unit pounded into a expanding cloud of smoke and ice. "Henry!" Casius shouted again whilst shifting his controls to make his way toward the corporal s unit. "Man down, I repeat Snow-Three is down!"

"Get into fucking cover!" Alie eyed her radar as a small unit had successfully ambushed them, probably attaining revenge for its fallen comrades, whatever the case was none would be going home today. A large object began to retreat disappearing through the thicket of trees it had tactfully been using for who knows how long. Alie brought her Jackal's 30mm machine gun to chest level and sang a song of humming bullets that ripped through the tree line like a hammer against toothpicks. Casius soon joined in verse ripping a burst from his rifle, spraying across the tree line not sure where the enemy had gone himself.

-- Sergeant, I m reading one Walker, and several foot mobiles.

There was a quick pause as the radar technician studied Alie's line of sight.

-- Four degrees to your right.

Correcting Alie's fire towards where the target was heading. Alie increased her monitor s magnification function as far as it could go, but it was still no good against the cover the trees had given. "Snow-Four what are you waiting for, open fire!" The Tank, Snow-Four, already had its support gun singing a tune of its own, but it was the 120mm cannon Alie wanted to hear, and she wanted a solo. There was a moment of silence just before the tank fired a hot shell through the trees, it zipped through striking through multiple trees, though finally died striking an outcropping on the other side.

-- Snow-Four correct your fire, two degrees to the left!

The tank operator complied, firing a second shell through the forest which seemed to strike against something with an amazing flash quickly followed by smoke. Alie pressed her foot against the pedals sending the Machine rushing forward, MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! Her unit broke through the tree line and made its way to the downed enemy. Casius was not so lucky, as his Walker slammed into the tree line and met it with much resistance. Pushing further onto the pedals, he forced the metallic beast through, though not without a few scratches.

A sudden volley of bullets smacked against Casiuss machine as he entered the woodland, several infantry had engaged him withsmall arms fire. The rounds harmlessly bounced off his thick armor as he pushed forward, even being lightly armed he still adjusted his sights. Laying a thin barrage across the group of mobiles, they scattered as powerful 30mm rounds ripped through flesh with little resistance. There was a sense of overkill as the bullets threw their bodies against trees, or tore them apart. It was possible maybe one or two persons snuck away, Casius gripped the controls tightly praying the rats wouldn't be resurfacing anytime soon.

Casius was huffing heavily as if he'd been doing the running himself, he even began to sweat as if it were a hundred degrees inside. There was a thick wall of smoke billowing towards him, possibly from the enemy Walker. Regardless even from such a close range it had rendered his sights all but useless. He adjusted his camera to a thermal scope perceiving everything though the monitor as black, gray, and white. There were two bright white silhouettes just meters before him: Alie's Jackal standing over the downed machine. It seemed to be squirming away at the best speed it could maintain. It was an Eos, its leg had been caught by the tank shell, there was no obvious damage to the pilot, at least not yet.

"Everyone listening?" Alie eased her crosshairs over the downed Eos, the tiny markers on screen changed from a pleasant green, to a crimson red as she locked onto the target. "We were unable to find any survivors among the enemy party."

Everyone chimed in nearly altogether,

-- Roger that.

Her 30mm rifle sings its verse, this song is over.