A/N: I hope you guys really like this one. I put a lot of heart into this chapter. Also, I'm sorry this one isn't as long as my other chapters. I didn't really see it necessary to drag this out just so I can meet my two thousand word quota.

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Chapter 8

ALEX

"Damn, this is uncomfortable." I was stretched out on the lumpy back seat trying to get some sleep. It was one of my frequent nights when insomnia wouldn't relinquish my mind. I lay there scooping my finger into a can of Irken potted meats and nursing a large bottle of vodka. Sid was wrapped in my jacket, asleep, next to me. I had programmed him to snore quietly because I can't stand silence. For the most part, the sector was asleep. The sirens had died out a few hours ago.

I pulled off my boots in an attempt to make myself more comfortable. I stared down at my bear feet and, for the billionth time, counted my toes. One, two, three, four. All I had left of the original three. The other two had been blown off in an accident. Well, as much an accident as an enemy grenade can be.

On many a dark and silent night when sleep would not take me, my mind would become a wash of the great volumes of abhorrent and monstrous events I had both committed toward and witnessed in my life. When these moods would settle over me, there was no way to escape. No matter how drunk, or stoned, or roasted I got, it was inevitable. This night was particularly bad. Some nights it would be Blorch. Others, it was Earth. But tonight, it was planet Vex and Corporal Alex.

I'd been with the fifty-seventh reg for a few years and during this time; I befriended one of my underlings. Alex was only one rank below me, so I didn't worry with it much, but as far as my service records say, he was an underling. We'd taken to each other almost immediately. We were great friends and comrades. At nights, when we weren't fighting in the slark, we'd lie outside our tents and watch the flares and mortars tear the sky a new one. It was beautiful to watch the way the light would play on the ground and surroundings. During the day, I always made sure he was with my command. We'd watch each other's back and we'd always come back in one piece.

We never made any plans about what we'd do after service. Statistics said neither one of us would make it out alive. We weren't delusional, but in the back of my mind, I hoped we'd be able to have lives and families. It'd be nice to live the Irken Dream, but it wasn't meant to be.

We were on the planet Vex. It was to be cleared for a vacation resort and gambling planet. Vex was home to those big-eyed, gray fuckers who scour the galaxy looking for new and exciting new species with anuses that have yet to be probed. Surprisingly, they put up some of the best fighting I'd ever seen. What we didn't know, was that, along with the grays, a staggering force of Resisty-paid mercs were there to help thwart our attempts.

I had been in control of that small unit of thirty for the past week. Our CO had been vaporized in a backfire accident during a firefight with the enemy and since I was Sergeant, the command had been handed to me. I protested this. I knew I was inexperienced and I didn't want to be responsible for my squad being blown to tiny, doomed pieces of meats. Of course, the higher ups had denied my request for relief of command. If they'd just listened, maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they did.

As usual, Alex was under my command. We'd been patrolling a valley on the outskirts of the large city-state, Abolterrad. Ahead of us was a high, steep ridge and to our backs was a large outcropping of rocks. We never saw it coming. They cried havoc and came tear-assing out of the rocks with everything they had. In the blinding flash of a few seconds, half of us had been cut down on the battlefield. I gave the order to retreat and we returned fire and attempted to fall back over the ridge.

Alex was at my side and together we charged forward. On either side of us, the ground rose up in fiery mortar explosions. We ran as hard and as fast as we could. Laser shots sailed past our heads. Alex stumbled and fell to the soil. I turned and picked him up and tossed him over my shoulder. We were almost to the top of the ridge when I saw what lay before us. Across the way a few hundred yards was a hill that was webbed with encampments, bunkers, and trenches. So many weapons discharged upon us at once that the entire hill looked like it was ablaze.

Suddenly, there was a burning sensation in my shoulder and I fell. Alex was sprawled in front of me. Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar and the top of the hill exploded. What I had hoped was a successful bomb run turned into a large cannon. Then I saw it. Several large, canister-like objects were falling toward the sky. Without thinking, I grabbed Alex and pulled my gas mask out of my Pak. I held it on his face and dragged him into a trench. We were bothed covered in blood and mud. I could barely see. And I knew, if I didn't hurry, we'd both be shot down. I frantically stumbled down the path until I found a small hole. It was almost like a cave. There was barely room for one, but, somehow, I managed to get myself and Alex inside. And then there was a terrible quake in the ground and the air grew hazy. I knew the canisters had found their marks and it was just a matter of time before the nerve gas poured into our cave. I held my breath and crawled out and back into the trench. I grabbed a pair of bodies and tried my best to hide the entrance to the cave.

There was a strange taste in my mouth. It was like a cold, bitter flavor. It was the gas. The Resisty had engineered a new kind of nerve gas that was designed to only kill Irkens. I tried to ignore it. Other then the taste in my mouth, and the numb feeling, I wasn't fazed. It would be a few months before the long-term effects would set in. For now I was fine. I looked down at Alex. He was just beginning to come to. I held the mask to his face. "Don't," I said. "It's the gas."

He looked up at me sadly and pointed to his stomach. It wasn't until this that I noticed the bloody, gaping hole and his squeedly spooch protruding through it. He said, "Sarge, I'm gonna' die no matta' what you do. I aint gonna' fucking take you with me. There aint no sense in it, Sarge." He removed the mask and held it up to my face with his quivering hand. "I want you to live. And-and G-get a family. P-please." He was shaking. I strapped the mask to my face and reached my arms around him. I propped him up against me and held onto him. His color was fading rapidly and I new the end was near. I was thankful that the bodies seemed to be keeping the gas out. He didn't seem to be in much pain. The gas would have turned this into agony. "I'm g-gonna' miss you Sarge." He said. "I loved you. I loved you like a brother." I told him there wasn't going to be any talk of dying. He'd be fine. This was a scratch. He smiled and looked up at me like he was going to speak. Instead, he arched into a violent coughing fit and blood quickly began to drip out of his mouth. The green was staining the chest of his uniform. He held a hand up to me and I grabbed hold of it. He gave mine a squeeze and then suddenly let go. His body went limp and knew he was gone. His head tilted to the side and the light in his eyes finally faded, never to look upon our great empire again. And I held onto him so tightly and rocked him like a newborn smeet. Hell, he might as well have been. He was half my age, he was just youngling. And now he was dead. And for the first time in my life, I felt an overwhelming feeling deep inside of me and I cried. Oh Irk, how I cried. And I knew, somehow, that all of this was my fault. His blood was literally on my hands and he'd never go home.

I laid there for a day and a half hugging Alex's body against mine. And that's how the burial crew found us. After the battle was done, the victorious Irkens sent in a clean up crew to dispose of the enemy bodies and retrieve their own dead. I remember, they had to wrestle him away from me. I couldn't let him go.

And to this day, I really, inside, couldn't let him go. As I had done many nights since, I sat there and wept into the sleeves of my shirt. I cried for some great deal of time. I cried so long, I cried myself to sleep.

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A/N: I hoped you like this. Thought I'd put in some filler and try my hand at some drama. Just so you know, (since I couldn't seem to make it fit in the text) the "long term effects" of the gas is a mutation in his brain that causes his headaches and psychotic lapses. Just so you know. Please leave a review.