Moooooooore revisions...

August 23rd, 2012

"Alright everyone, listen up!"

The Colonel's voice was painfully loud in Church's ears. It had to be to actually be heard above the roar of the chopper Omega team was riding in.

"Within the hour, all six of you will be dropped off at Zone Alpha! Allow me to remind you that your presence here will be denied by your respective governments should you be captured! Remember that extraction is at 0600 hours, no exceptions! If you're late you'll have to find your own ride. Now I suggest you all get ready, because you've only got three minutes before we land!"

With that, the grizzled old man retreated into the cockpit of the chopper, leaving Church and his experimental squad-mates to prep for their first mission. Church, or 'Foxhole' since no one used their actual names on this team, had already prepped for this operation, and instead observed his squad-mates doing so. Each of them was older than him. In fact, at only 15, Church must have been the youngest person ever enlisted to be a sniper. But then again, that was the point of The Legion. An experimental regiment that would possess all of the world's deadliest soldiers, to keep the peace where the government could not. Age was of no consequence. If you were the best at what you did, you were accepted.

Church didn't really think having such a natural gift at sharpshooting was really a 'gift' at all. After all, what would he tell others his natural talent was? Killing people? Looking them dead in the face just before sending them on a one-way trip to hell? He felt sick just thinking about it. This was not what he had planned on doing with his life. Not before his parents had been killed, at the very least.

In an effort to take his mind off of those dreadful musings, Chuch glanced around the chopper at the people he would be serving with that day. He did not know any of them. But in a way he did. They were all just like him. They were all the same.

And it was the lack of faces they had that drove that point home. They all wore helmets that hid their faces. You couldn't tell them apart save for the weapons they carried. They were faceless soldiers. Grunts. Special grunts maybe, but ultimately still disposable.

Church looked into the visor of one of his comrades as they prepared to deploy into the darkness of the night. All Church could see was his own reflection, and that amounted to little more than a helmet and a mask. Here he was an expendable statistic deployed to fight against the enemies of man. And while there was a certain heroic aspect to it, Church could only recognize the darkness that he dived into when the time came to begin the mission.

Church leaned on one of the massive trees that dominated the forest of Syrinidell, the familiar asperity of tree bark pressed against his back. He used to be fascinated by them, but by now the massive pillars of bark had already lost their grandeur. He wondered if the elves felt this way? To humans, this forest was amazing. But to the elves who had lived here their whole lives, maybe human cities were more fascinating?

The permanently wounded soldier sighed, the exhaustion of nearly two weeks of Alleyne's intense physical training that he had undergone deeply seated in his weary body. Only two days were left until his fight with Echidna. For that reason, Alleyne had told Church to rest these last two days. He believed she had put it, "A spent body is far deadlier to a warrior than any lack of skill."

He had to admit that Alleyne was truly wise. Of course, unlike humanity, elves lived for centuries: even their 'young' ones had far more life experience than any human could ever hope to achieve. This was sort of an unfair advantage, or it would've been if the elves themselves were hostile to the humans around them. Still, from what Church had gathered from Alleyne, the elven population was quite a bit smaller than the human one. And Church knew that as far as medieval warfare was concerned, more was almost always better. Even the greatest warriors fell before massive hordes.

Church knew that his mind was wandering, but he could do nothing to control it. On one hand, he couldn't keep still, but on the other, it hurt too much not to. Right now though, the most important thing was to figure out his strategey for the 'fight' he was going to have with Echidna, which would likely amount to nothing but a whole lot of suffering.

After all, he already knew that he was going to lose. He had no doubt about that. The real question, as well as his real worry, was how Echidna would defeat him. Would she see fit to break a few bones and beat him senseless, or would the green-haired elf just kill him? Church wasn't particularly fond of either option. And the worst thing was, he knew there was no stopping Echidna from doing what she wanted to him. She was faster, stronger, and had far more battle experience. And by far more he meant that she had hundreds of years and he had zero. Sure, Church had tons of battlefield experience: with guns. But this sword and shield and hand-to-hand combat stuff? The only experience he had with those pertained to old fighting games from before NOVA, and Church didn't really think that qualified him as a deadly warrior.

Of course, if Echidna held true to her word, than perhaps Church wouldn't be in as bad of a situation as he had believed. Echidna had said that all he had to do was touch her: with a few underhanded tricks, and a bit of luck, there was actually a small chance of that happening. Of course, the racy elf could just disregard that little handicap she had granted Church and then proceed to slaughter him anyway, but hopefully Echidna had just a little bit of honor in her, although she didn't exactly look the type for such a thing.

And of course, Alleyne had apparently not deemed it necessary to give Church any kind of weapons training, so it looked like he'd be heading into this mess with his fists.

Needless to say he had zero confidence in that particular avenue of assault.

The absolute hopelessness of the situation almost made him laugh. He was beyond screwed. What was he thinking, showing up to a massacre like this? Sure, his honor was at stake, but that was a small price to pay for one's life.

Not to mention that Church was at a great physical disadvantage beyond skill alone. Sure, he was now in pretty good shape thanks to Alleyne's rigorous training routine, but all of the exercise in the world would never mend his knee. In physical combat, the limb would slow Church considerably, and any kicks he threw with it would be awkward and stunted. And on top of that, his right arm was still wrapped in a sling, the terrible sprain Echidna had caused at the shoulder and elbow immobilizing it completely. He could move it just slightly, and even then it caused him excruciating pain. So it would seem that Church was down to one good leg and one good arm, cutting his combat effectiveness in half.

As he continued to stack up the odds against himself, Church's demeanor gradually grew more dismal and dreary. He had a sporadic habit of falling into states of depression after the NOVA incident, which was apparently a lingering symptom of post-traumatic stress syndrome. He had mostly conquered all of the other problems: failing to save his comrades and friends, and seeing monsters where there were none. But the depression was always there, somewhere on the edge of his soul, waiting for the time to strike him when he was facing problems like the current one that seemed downright hopeless.

Before, Church's sister had always been there to comfort him. Mission was a rough and tumble girl at the core, but nevertheless a very loving sibling, constantly fretting over the well-being of her adopted older brother. Well, not adopted, per se, but they were as close to siblings as they could possibly be without being strictly blood related. They were essentially step cousins, but had lived with each other for so long they could only love each other like brother and sister.

Thoughts of his sister brought forth thoughts of happier times in general, earning a wistful smile out of Church even as he faced imminent danger in the next few days.

Those happier days felt much further in the past than they truly were, though a decade was no small thing considering his young age. So much had happened since then; his induction into the Legion, NOVA, the creation of New Eden... it made the normalcy of his childhood seem so distant, as if it was the fabrication of a dream, and not the experience of a life he once lived.

The flood of memories from a distant past combined with the worries he faced now filled Church with a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. He didn't know what to feel right now; anger at his own stupidity, happiness in the companionship of his new friends, or depression knowing that he would be away from the family he missed so much for such a long time. Such emotional unbalance was dangerous before a battle, but the soldier could do nothing to subdue his feelings.

As he lay there, slumped against one of the innumerable, generic, and now unappreciated trees of this gargantuan forest, Church was painfully aware of each passing second. Usually, time flew by when he was engrossed in his own thoughts, but now it seemed that time was moving at an excruciatingly slow pace. He knew that if he sat here any longer, he'd go crazy, despite his need for rest. He had to get up and do something, anything to occupy himself, and distract his mind from the unpleasant thoughts they so felt the need to think.

He thought of Alleyne and what he had convinced her to promise him, and he realized that he couldn't do anything with those cherries she loved so much if he didn't know where they were, so he set off in a mostly fruitless search for the grove Alleyne had mentioned growing up in.

Airi swore as she buried her scythe in the trunk of one of Syrinidell's seemingly omnipresent trees. She was not usually one to lose her cool, at least not when Melona wasn't around to agitate her, but she was sick and tired of trees, especially gargantuan trees that blotted out the sky with their massive canopies. Everything looked the same in this place, as all she could see in any direction was a multitude of accursed trees, blending into one another and frustrating Airi to no end. Of all the places Church could've possibly gotten lost, why here? Why in what was possibly the largest collection of plant life this world had to offer? He could be miles upon miles from where she was, and Airi would have no way of knowing.

The resurrected servant sighed and sat on one of the giant roots that supported the monstrous, leafy giant above her. She would wait here for Melona to return from the area she was supposed to have scouted. Although finding each other would usually be hard, as servants of the Swamp Witch the two had a sort of mental compass that alerted each other to the presence of, well, each other. That was as far as its usefulness extended, except in Airi's case, as it prevented Melona from sneaking up on her to play pranks and whatnot.

Speaking of that nuisance who was unfortunately her only friend, Melona was approaching from behind her. Airi turned to face the slime and receive a report on her findings, but the doleful look on the bunny-eared girl's face already stated that she had not had any success.

Neither of them spoke as Melona came to rest on the root beside Airi, and the wraith noticed that her friend seemed to be almost melting a little. It was something that happened to the shape-shifter whenever she was depressed. Airi couldn't really blame her though. The two of them had been out there for several weeks now: Master would be very displeased with them when they finally returned to the Swamp, not only weeks later than the appointed time, but without Menace in tow, and only a useless new replacement to show for it.

As for their tardiness, Airi now had no one to blame but herself. She could have originally pinned the blame on Melona, since she was the one taking too long to travel. But the blame was now entirely Airi's as she alone had chosen to continue the search for their lost companion for this long, and without even being entirely sure why. She had told Melona herself that they would only spend a few hours looking for Church and now it had been over two weeks. She never would have thought herself capable of combing a giant forest for two weeks straight, but apparently she was.

And every time Airi asked herself why she was doing this, she couldn't give herself an answer. She simply didn't know. She had plenty of vague, general feelings in her gut that pushed her to do this, but she couldn't put them into words. Chief among those feelings was guilt; by now Airi had taken Melona's initial words to heart, and she'd be wracked with guilt if she simply abandoned someone who trusted her out here. Maybe that was a bit of her undying loyalty leaking into her actions and decisions?

Either way, at this point, Airi was unwilling to leave the forest until she knew for sure what had befallen the man that had tagged along with them. If he were dead, that was that, but if he were somehow still alive somewhere, Airi couldn't leave him in good conscience.

Airi leaned back and analyzed the tree canopy that covered the two companions from the heat of the sun. Only a few patches of the sky were visible through the thick leaves that overlapped each other in the many intertwined branches of the forest. Airi herself wished she were up there in the clouds right now. Flying had been one of the only things the maid actually saw as a benefit of being a spirit. She had always wondered what flying was like as a child, and she had certainly found out, albeit not in a manner she would have willingly chosen.

Airi thought she could see a few illusory birds up there in the sky. She was pretty certain that she was imagining it, because the birds were flapping, but not moving. Which wasn't possible, because birds glided on wind currents, so being stationary wasn't really an option...

Thinking that she may have been seeing things, Airi rubbed her eyes and squinted up at the very real flapping wings, and a realization that made her smile for the first time in many weeks hit her. There were few entities that could see almost anywhere in this world, and Airi believed that she had just found two of them. Things were starting to look a lot better than they had just a few minutes ago.

REVISED.