April 13, 2035
16:00 Hours
I decided to put down the head cam. I blinked my eyes quickly to adjust to the light outside of a lens. It's been a long day. I had no idea that following these two to increase morale would be such a terrifying, yet exhilarating experience.
Now that I'm with them, they're more human than just my project. Rita or the Angel of Death, as the Media now calls her thanks to me, is a lot more fascinating than I first assumed. She was good for increasing morale, but now she's become more to me. I can't help but also idolize her like the millions of viewers I broadcast her image to. She pushes harder, works faster, and rests less than all the other men and women.
She's not drop-dead-gorgeous, but there is a surreal beauty to her. The scar that runs the length of her left cheek is more attractive than gruesome and her brown eyes are intense and thoughtful.
Just yesterday I asked Rita what drives her to fight so hard. I was desperately hoping for a compelling answer about saving humanity, but she surprised me. Her response was simple.
"I fight for blue eyes and a big smile," she told me.
Then she produced an engagement ring that was hidden under her gloved hand. She didn't tell me any more after that. I will admit, I was a little crushed to realize my idol was taken.
Now Cage is an entirely different story. He has cold blue eyes and he's her fighting partner. The two are inseparable and move as a unit. I don't think she notices, but he spends most of his time looking out for her. Even now, while she's resting free of her gear, he's crouched protectively beside her. He's bandaged her wounds on more than one occasion and seems to have a fascination in how she fights. When I say fascination, I mean, I think there is something going on there. Cage is a scientist to some almost unsettling degree and he met Rita under some unconventional circumstances. From bits and pieces they've accidentally divulged, I think Cage may have cooked something up in a lab and administered it to Rita. She might be his very own little experiment.
Cage's as fierce a fighter as Rita. He also possess a kind of charm especially when it comes to the opposite sex. Sometimes I find myself just fascinated by the way he explains battle maneuvers or the way he flirts. He's good about sneaking in a touch, too. I've even seen him sneak one in with Rita once or twice. It's a hand on Rita's back when they have a Press Conference or a gentle rub of the shoulder to reassure her. I wish I was as smooth as he is. Hell, I'm taking notes.
But truly, at the end of the day, they are two comrades and there is a bond there that goes deeper than what two playful lovers might experience. It's that life and death bond that makes these two some of the best war propaganda I've encountered.
As Rita shuts her eyes to nod off, Cage checks their messages via the touch screen panel on his suit that stands erect without him. I should say the suit is really his protective armor.
Their armor is more of a cage. A cage equipped with guns, small rocket launchers, and complete with mechanical legs that give them added agility and height. It's also designed to carry repair tools for downed aircraft and first aid equipment. These are all stored into the sides of the titanium legs. A last chance addition allows the suit to be abandoned and detonated from a safe distance. This is a measure only allowed to be taken when the suit itself is beyond repair. They look like something straight out of a video game. Unfortunately, a soldier still has to do all their own fighting. The Military hopes to design a weapon that allows these incredible armored devices to be unmanned, but as of now, these are meat bag holders. As helpful as they are, they pose their own dangers. Because a soldier has to be strapped in pretty tight, it can be hard to escape if the armor is damaged or if a soldier falls into a body of water too deep. There are some booster packs built into the back of the armor, which helps a soldier to slow down their descent when jumping from a plane or to blast a soldier out of the water if they're sinking, but there's only enough juice in those things for three shots. Using it too soon can be a fatal error.
I myself have never even sat in one of these things. They're incredibly expensive to make and as cruel as it sounds, are only given to the most elite soldiers. Elite beings those who have made ten kills or more and still have all their limbs intact. When a soldier is thrown into battle, they're eager to get those first ten killed as quickly as possible because, truth is, they have a lot better chance of surviving in that armor than on their own. The reality is the average number of kills a soldier makes before their demolished is about six. Wearing an armor machine like this instantly elevates your status and encourages soldiers around you that you've got their back.
That's precisely what makes Rita and Cage so astounding. In a single battle, Rita and Cage both average about twelve kills and wound other opponents well enough that they're sure to expire in a few hours. An actual battle lasts not much longer than three hours. Within three hours, we're either extinguished and calling the retreat or the enemy is out of warriors in that battle zone. Our adversaries do not retreat, they simply fight until the last one is standing.
I see Rita jolt awake. It's not uncommon for these two to lack the proper amount of sleep. They're wired too tightly. I'm even starting to feel the affects of the constant adrenaline high. Sleeping in No Species Land doesn't make fighting insomnia any better.
No Species Land, another name coined by me. I know I did steal it from No Man's Land, but we couldn't reuse that name in 2035 while fighting an alien invasion. No Species Land is actually what used to be the border between the States and Canada. These days, we're pretty much One Nation with borders eradicated. It's an insane panic to keep our species alive and united. Most of Europe is lost. The first attack a few years ago resulted in us having to nuke Europe after transporting what people we could out of there. It was the only way to hold off the initial invasion. With the atomic bomb, they lost and so did we.
People enlisted quickly after the first attack, but now drafts have been enforced. It's hard to get people to sign up for suicide. So, that's where I come in. It's my job to show the world that people like Rita and Cage exist and that anyone can do what they're doing. That our species is not doomed and we're capable of fighting back.
A few years back few people actually watched the Media less with the news easily accessed by the Internet. Now days people are glued to the screen. We don't feature TV shows or movies any more. Just the ever eventful updates. Even Radio stations are on the rise again. There's also no distinction between race any more either. No one gives a second thought if you're White, African, Hispanic, or Chinese. We're all in this war together and people only care if you can fight.
Guns, which were once taken away from the general populace in the name of peace, are being handed out like hot cakes. Everyone learns how to shoot and how our enemy works.
Our leading scientist on the Outsiders is Alex Mooney. I've spent a lot of time featuring him behind the lens. I can't say I'm super pleased with the name he's come up with for the Alien race, but I guess I can't get the privilege of naming everything. Alex is a sharp guy and while his previous work mainly went unnoticed, he's now the guy calling the shots on how we oppose these things. He's actually spent a lot of time with Rita and Cage. He's taught them all he knows about the Outsiders and how best to fight them. He's also spent sometime studying Rita after some interesting conferences with Cage.
Alex theorizes these Outsiders have a God Complex. In the decade of 2020 we've all but forgotten the idea of a god. Churches went out of style and schools have long stopped using God as the center piece of studies. Alex, along with some prestigious historians, is heavily pushing the belief that these beings have been here before based on the information from Ancient Civilizations. I know this is nothing we haven't thought of before, but it's more real now. Some people have started to believe that if we worship them and give into their radical domination, we can save our species. These are the people who have never been on the front lines and watched soldiers be demolished by the Outsiders' Jackals.
We call them Jackals because they slightly resemble Anubis from Ancient Egypt. They're just ten times more deadly and terrifying. They're intelligent too and we're under the impression they communicate telepathically making it nearly impossible for us to get a hold on any of their battle plans. Luckily, they're pretty much the grunts of the Outsiders. They're easier to kill and are usually sent in with the first wave. They're kind of like scouts that lets our adversary know our numbers and our attack strategy. We've learned to change our attack pattern as soon as the jackals are defeated.
Cage has just nodded to me and has helped Rita up and into her suit. It's time to get moving. We can't stay in one place too long or jackals are sure to find us. It looks like we'll be headed back to base. I can't lie, my gut turns every time we have to move. I swear, my nerves are fried. Anyways, I'm going to log off now. If you're future generations listening to this, and I hope you are, I've given you a general idea of what we're facing. Peace out!