The lights above Colonel Joson flickered on and off, occasionally letting loose a shower of sparks that left behind glowing afterimages in the dark. The whole base had suffered considerable damage in the attack, but at least the security room still received powered from the back-up generators. Many of the screens mounted on the wall before him were showing nothing but monochrome fuzz- most of the cameras in the base had been destroyed. Only a few were still intact; even fewer still continued to transmit a live feed.
Joson stared at one of the screens covered in black and white snow, the rush of static matching the dull roar in his own ears. Just moments ago he'd watched John Stalvern, the last Marine alive left in the UAC, face off against a horde of demons. The ceiling, weakened by the rocket blasts and superheated plasma, had collapsed, knocking out the cameras and falling on everyone in the room.
"Stalvern, are you there? Come in!" Joson yelled into the radio. He knew it was useless. No human could have survived that. But if there was a chance –- any chance at all –- he couldn't just stay silent.
"John! If you can hear me, say something!"
"I can hear you," came a weak voice over the radio.
"Jesus Christ, Stalvern. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, pretty banged up, but I think I'm fine."
No human could have survived that.
"Stalvern, I think we need to talk."
"Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some—" John cut himself off with a hiss. The sound of what sounded suspiciously like a concrete slab crashing to the ground came over the speakers. "Wait, never mind."
There was no way the colonel could keep quiet after that. "You're impossibly fast and strong. I've seen you take hits that dropped the other mariens. Hell, you just survived a ceiling falling on you. You carry more weapons than anyone else on base, and sometimes you speak like a terrible author was writing all your dialogue. You never walk or sleep. I've never seen you out in the sunlight."
Joson took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "How long have you been a Marine?" he asked, his voice surprisingly calm despite the pounding in his ears.
A pause. "Fourteen years."
"How long have you known this attack was coming?"
The silence stretched on far too long before John answered. "…A while."
There was no going back now. "I know what you are."
"Say it," John said, his voice cracking out over the radio. "Out. Loud."
"Demon."