Ch 44: Always remember a fallen soldier
(Tues, Y+1, M+5, D+4)
[Firebase Alpha, City of Vale]
AN: Heavy AU incoming. And a rather significant tangent.
I continue to stare out of the tiny armored viewport, captivated by the deadly drama playing itself out before my eyes. It was like the Hindenberg footage, I just couldn't look away. I could see the swarms of Griffons and Nevermores assaulting anything that flew. The Amity Colosseum was being assaulted by flying Grimm, as were a trio of Atlesian airships. The AC fighters were dancing through the sky, bursts of cannon fire and missile contrails light the darkening sky, which made the silhouettes of the Grimm all the more intimidating.
I saw a series of flashes coming from one of the Atlesian airships, it was opening fire on its two companions, knocking both from the sky in balls of fire and smoke.
"Problem!" I say loudly. "We've got fratricide."
"What!?" Brimstone asks rather loudly.
"The Atlesian airships! One just knocked the other two out!"
"What's going on up there." Brimstone growls.
"Hell if I know." I say, hearing the sounds of combat get even louder suddenly.
"What!?" I hear Brimstone say.
"Sir?" One asks.
"The Atlesian 'bots are going psycho. They're opening fire on pretty much everything that moves. Except for the Grimm, it seems." Brimstone says. "I'm calling Code Charlie Foxtrot Alpha."
I turn to ask Sven a question.
"The Code system designates a mission's status. Charlie Foxtrot is the lowest of our 'problem' codes, next comes SNAFU, then FUBAR, then Mauve. If somebody calls Code Mauve, we're all screwed. Don't even bother running because you won't make it, just stand and go down fighting. Making peace with yourself is also a recommended option." Sven explains, preempting my question.
"Well then." I say, deciding that it would be a good time to recheck my gear.
"Alright, change of plans." Brimstone says, presumably getting off of a call. "Our escort's being cut back a bit. The tanks and infantry are being reassigned elsewhere. The good news is that all local airborne assets are being diverted to cover us. We're leaving now." He says, as the MRAP jerks to life. As we move, I see the aircraft in the sky begin to act more aggressively. Instead of simply holding onto a piece of sky and downing any grimm that contested it, they start to bank towards us and actively clear an area of sky above us.
We come up to the gate, a solid piece of metal covered by a series of bunkers and sandbagged emplacements. The gate splits apart in the middle and both halves slide to the side, revealing the city of Vale. The city before us is rather more intact than I would have expected it to be, but I guess the AC forces are holding down the area rather nicely.
The gates slide open and two of the Jeeps roll out in front of us, followed by us, followed by the other MRAP, followed by the other two Jeeps. Our convoy continues on in relative peace until we reach one of the residential districts.
A small squad of AK androids opens fire from a side road, their rifle fire simply scratching the paint of our MRAP. The minigun on top of our MRAP buzzes to life like a massive saw. The AKs are quickly reduced to scrap in a sideways hail of bullets and a few grenades fired from the sponsons mounted on either side of the Jeeps.
From there on, it got harder. Our convoy slowed down as we had to deal with increasing Grimm threats ahead of us. The air support is making our journey much easier, although the beautiful display of military might is not the first thing on my mind.
"You alright Kurt?" Ivan asks.
"Yeah. Just a bit concerned. Beacon's under attack, after all, and all of my friends are there. Except for Dad and Uncle Qrow, everyone I know lives there. Even my sisters. I mean, I know they can take care of themselves, but this is something different."
"Hey… Kurt, isn't it?" Three asks.
"Yes." I reply.
"If you have that much faith in them, they'll be alright. We all know how you feel. Fighting is one thing, but sitting around while everyone else puts their lives on the line is something far worse. Either way, we're closing in on the Academy. We'll be there soon."
"I guess we will." I say, looking out of the viewport to see the lake separating Beacon from the city proper. In the surface I could see the battle being waged in the skies. I could see Grimm and AC aircraft dancing their ballet of death. As I watched the skies above, saw a Griffon ram straight into an AC fighter, causing both to spiral down to crash into the ground just off the path a couple hundred or so meters ahead of us. In the darkness, we could see Grimm gathering to attack. We would probably make it through with speed and force of arms but the pilot would be dead. If he weren't already.
"Is he still alive?" I ask Brimstone.
"HUD says he is." Is the response. "But by the time we get to her it'll be too late."
"Not if I can help it." I say determined. 'I may not be able to help my friends right now, but I won't let them get that pilot.'
"What? You'll get yourself killed if you try. And us too if we stop to get her." One says.
"Then don't stop. And Neo, if you wouldn't mind keeping a video call going on your scroll, that would be great." I look out the viewport and see the crashed aircraft. The pilot appears to have opened the cockpit and is attempting to free herself from the wreckage.
"Don't-" I hear someone say.
*bamf*
I'm standing a meter from the crashed fighter, stepping from my usual cloud of smoke. The pilot looks at me through an opaque visor.
"Where the hell'd you come from kid? Get outta here, I'll just slow you down." She orders as she attempts to pull herself from the burning craft. "My leg's pinned, I won't be able to get out before those things reach us."
I see the Grimm close in and start to charge. 'Shit.'
"Not if I can help it." I say, jumping onto her fighter and grabbing onto her forearm. With my other hand I grab Blue Death and start firing into the oncoming mass of Beowolves and Ursai. "Hold this for me, would you?" I ask, letting go of her arm and pulling my scroll from my belt. I press a button and calling Neo appears on the screen. After that I press the scroll into her hand.
'"What the hell were you thinking!?"' Neo demands as her face appears on the screen. In the mackground I can see the occupants of the MRAP staring at the screen.
'"I was thinking that you could maybe turn your scroll to show me an open space in the MRAP big enough for two people?"' I look up to take better aim as I let Blue Death drop in its sling and grab Marxman from its holster.
"Just get outta here kid! I'll hold them off! Just RUN!" The pilot shouts at me, both angry and sad.
'"*sigh* You reckless elf."'
'"I love you too dear."'
I look down to see her helmetless face. "Just let me die. I don't want to drag someone else down with me." She says, determination in her eyes.
"Just hold on." I say, grabbing her forearm and looking into the scroll to visualize the area in my mind. Next I turn my head to see where the convoy is. The pilot shouts at me and I hear growling almost right next to me. The Grimm are within arm's length. I feel the pilot's body and position. 'This is gonna be a close one.'
*bamf*
We reappear inside the MRAP, and fall in a heap to the floor. The pilot throws up.
"Any of you a medic?" I ask aloud.
"I am." Three says.
"Multiple fractures in the ribs and right arm, broken right femur and severe flesh wounds on the right leg." I report, pulling myself from the floor. The pilot has stopped vomiting, now she's screaming in pain and grabbing onto her leg, now bent at a rather unhealthy angle. Now I notice how her flight suit is reinforced with what appears to be armor in certain vital areas. Fortunately for her, the armor had probably saved her life. There were multiple pieces of shrapnel stuck in the armor, although a few had penetrated whatever it was the armor was made of.
"On it." Three says, dropping his AR to grab a medkit from an overhead compartment.
"What the hell was that kid?" Brimstone asks a bit angrily.
"Teleportation sir. It's my semblance. I can teleport from one end of the city to the other pretty much at will." I say, reloading my weapons. "I can take inanimate objects with me rather easily. However, pulling someone along with me while I do so is rather tiring and energy-consuming." I say, taking off my helmet. I pull a ration bar from my coat and promptly start eating.
"And you didn't tell us because." Brimstone asks.
"Figured it was in whatever file or report I figured you probably had on me and my team." I gesture to Sven. "Or he told you. Either way, it's more of a tactical than a strategic thing. I won't be able to get us all in or out without severely compromising my combat effectiveness." I say, finishing the bar and shoving the wrapper into my greatcoat. I replace my helmet on my head and feel the vehicle drive onto an incline. We're starting to ascend onto the Beacon plateaux.
"What the hell's going on up there?" Ivan asks, pointing up towards the edge of the plateaux.
A small fleet of bullheads appear to be hovering right next to the edge of the cliff.
"Looks like the Academy is under attack." Brimstone comments. "Frank."
"Yessir?" The driver asks.
"Punch it." Brimstone comms to the convoy. A series of confirmations follow from the drivers, after which the convoy starts to pick up speed, barreling along the road at speeds that could easily be considered unsafe.
"How long 'till we reach the top?" I ask, performing yet another equipment check. I pull back Blue Death's bolt, chambering a round but keeping the safety on.
"A couple minutes. No more than two." Four says, running a clean cloth over a jet black short sword. He stares down the length of the blade and sheathes it in a slot on the back of his armor. "You alright kid? You seem a bit… tense."
"Again, my two sisters are up there, one of whom saved my life. The other sister is the single most caring woman I know, although she doesn't always show it. If either of them get hurt, I will be PISSED." I say, my voice taking on the usual dark echo on the last word.
"What." Three says, his tone flat.
"What just happened." One asks in a similar tone.
"Oh. Yeah. That." I say, balancing one of my knives on the tip of my finger. "In the event that nobody's told you yet, I'm kinda psychic. Actually the reason I was visiting your base in the first place. Grey invited me to run some tests. She was rather intrigued by me, I guess."
"So you're a psyk too? Kinda figured." Four says. I cock my head to the side a bit. "Takes one to know one."
"Prove it." I say, after which my knife starts to float up and spin around in the air. "So I'm not the only one." I say, a bit happier.
"Yeah, I specialize in Telekinesis and the like. I have, on occasion, crushed AFVs like soda cans. And vice-versa. Never been much good with the sensory stuff."
"And as far as I can tell, I'm pretty much the opposite. I can sense a roughly 50-meter radius, although I do have minor telekinetic capabilities. As in I can lift a magazine but that's about it. There's a bit more but I don't think we have the time for it." I say, as we reach the top of the plateaux and the voice of the lead Jeep's pilot sounds in the comms.
"We've spotted the objective. Hard contact." The pilot reports, as we hear fighting in the distance.
"Alright. Everyone move out. We disembark one-hundred meters from the target. Repeat, we disembark one-zero-zero meters from the target. Air support you are green to open fire on any hostiles within five hundred, repeat five-zero-zero meters of the target." Brimstone curtly orders.
A string of responses sound from the various pilots.
"Sir. We have three distinct groups of hostiles active. White Fang terrorists, rogue Atlesian tech, and Grimm. The Atlesian 'bots are focusing mostly on the target area, the Fang are attacking students and Atlesians attempting to evac via the airfield, and the Grimm are generally running amok." One of the pilots (I assume flying in a gun/drop ship) reports. Brimstone sighs angrily.
"We disembark now, all vehicles are to cover the evac. Even air power, we can hold our own." Brimstone orders. "But be ready to cover us in case we can't." He says with what I can only assume is a smirk. The MRAP screeches to a halt and the doors fly open. We quickly pile out. Except for me, I bamf.
I bring up my rifle and immediately pick off a beowulf watching from a rooftop. A three round burst tears through its open mouth and puts the beast down.
"Hostiles incoming!" I report into the comm net. "Beowolves, lots of 'em." I say, opening fire on the others that quickly swarm towards us from around the buildings. After a few moments, I realize that these are the dorms. And they're about half on fire. "Well shit, there goes my security deposit."
"That's the least of our problems, just get moving!" Brimstone orders, already jogging towards the CCT, firing the occasional burst as he went. None of them missed. Ignis forms up behind him in a miniature flying wedge, also firing as they go.
"C'mon! Move it!" I shout, deciding that it would be best to follow the group of highly-trained soldiers. The Legionnaires also disembark and together we all start booking it towards the CCT under covering fire from our rapidly retreating transports.
After a few hectic minutes of running and shooting we reach the CCT to find a battle raging. SSSN, JNPR, CFVY, Weiss, Stahl and a couple of other students I recognize but don't remember are all holding the line against Grimm, rogue Paladins, and a small handful of White Fang insurgents.
"OPEN FIRE!" Brimstone bellows, his voice amplified by his helmet. The students, Grimm, and insurgents all turn to stare. And then they die.
I focus on the insurgents, their existence being a pet peeve of mine. I quickly switch to single rounds and quickly double-tap all eight of them.
By the time I've finished, I have the privilege of watching Ignis and Brimstone deal with a group of three Paladins moving to reinforce the trio already attacking the CCT's defenders.
Four is ineffectually hosing down one Paladin with his AR. He runs dry and quickly clips the weapon to the back of his armor, switching it for his straight-bladed sword. He quickly rushes the mech, his sword glowing a bright greenish-white color. He uses what I assume to be telekinesis to wrench the Paladin's weapons away from aiming at him as he charges the mech. He leaps, stabbing the sword straight through the armor of the cockpit, swiftly opening a hole with a few precise strikes. Once through, he tosses a couple of grenades and jumps off, sheathing his sword and again wielding his AR.
As he jogs away from the mech, now behaving a bit erratically due to what I assume is system damage, he casually reloads his weapon. Precisely six seconds after he threw the grenades, they detonate and gut the Paladin, leaving it to limply crash to the ground.
Meanwhile, the rest of Ignis keep peppering their mech with AR fire while Three quickly unclips a compact rocket launcher from the back of his armor and fires, the rocket lancing into the mech, obliterating it.
Next I turn my attention to Brimstone, dealing with what appears to be an advanced model of the Paladin. He's already crippled it, somehow damaging both the primary weapon systems and the legs, using only his AR and his sword, which he is wielding in tandem, firing a few rounds from his larger caliber AR and slashing occasionally with his sword, dealing with the occasional Grimm the got too close. In addition to this, he was dodging the mech's occasional rocket barrages, fired from launch bays on its back. The mech charged at him, which he dodged by jumping over it and landing on its back.
He emptied his magazine into something on the back of the mech and then stabbed his sword into the mech, sinking it down to the hilt. The mech twitches a bit and slumps over, dead. Everyone else is done clearing out their foes and stare at the newly-arrived soldiers. And us, but more them.
"Well, that was a bit disappointing. I was expecting better." Brimstone says, to the shock of pretty much everyone.
"THAT WAS MY FAMILY'S MOST ADVANCED DESIGN YET!" Weiss yells.
"Well then you've still got a ways to go." Brimstone says.
Weiss, simply put, fumes. As in, she's angry enough that even I can feel it. Apparently so can Four.
"I think you pissed her off Lead." Four remarks via the comms.
"I've got more important things to worry about." Brimstone replies. "Alright kids, time for you to evacuate." He orders, amplifying his voice using his helmet so that it rings out commandingly. "The Legionnaires will be going with you to provide support." He turns to one of the Legionnaires, their sole discernable difference being the red stripe running down the top of their helmet. "Decanus, make sure that these kids get back to the docks. Don't wait for us. We'll be calling in for exfil via aircraft." Brimstone orders.
"Sir." Decanus replies, saluting before he starts to order his squad around.
"We're not leaving, the headmaster, Pyrrha and Jaune are still down there." Coco says firmly, standing her ground. The other students stand firmly and nod in agreement.
"No, you're not. We're going to get out of here. It's my job to make sure you stay safe and that's what I'll do. The Atlesians have set up a safe zone down in the city, and that's where we're headed." Stahl orders, his voice commanding. He's dressed in his combat armor; a cross between Atlesian armor and a suit of Roman plate armor, formed from a shining silver metal. His helmet, however, is starkly Roman, except much more angular and possessing a pair of silver ridges running down the top, almost like the plumes on a Roman helmet except much less pronounced.
"You four too." Stahl says, pointing to us.
"Sorry sir, we've got a job to do still." I say, gesturing to Brimstone and Ignis.
"I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise, am I?"
"No sir. See you on the other side Stahl." I say, snapping a salute.
"You too Kurt." Stahl says, returning it smartly. "Alright kids, move out!" he barks, wielding his shotgun-hammer Panzerfaust with both hands. He likes to get up close and personal, he finds it cathartic.
As Stahl, my fellow students, and the legionnaires head off towards the airship docks, Brimstone starts barking orders.
"Ignis, get those doors open, I want a way down there ASAP." He says, quickly reloading his AR.
"Sir, the door is entirely unharmed. And the elevator still works." One reports.
"Oh. That was a lot easier than I exp-" Brimstone says, before stopping abruptly.
"Fuck." Brimstone, Ignis and Sven all say simultaneously. And I mean simultaneously,.
"I just tempted the Fates, didn't I?" Brimstone says resignedly.
"Ummm… What the hell just happened." Ivan asks, rather confused just like Neo and I.
"Brimstone over here just expressed the sentiment that this mission was going more easily than he had expected, thus tempting the Fates. Long story short, something's going to go horribly wrong and it's all Brimstone's fault." Two says. In the distance we hear an unholy roar/screech. "Hmm. That was fast. I was going to give it five more minutes at least." Two remarks.
"Holy shit that thing's big." I say, spotting the Grimm dragon in the distance, coming from Mountain Glenn. "Massive fucking dragon inbound." I say, pointing. "Thataway."
"Well then. Sure looks like it's heading this way, doesn't it." Two says, slightly amused.
"Shut it." Brimstone orders, a bit in jest if I'm any judge. "We should get moving. I'm not sure how effective our air cover will be against that thing." He says, as we all file into the elevator. It is surprisingly roomy.
One stares at the panel on the wall. "What floor?" He asks.
"The lowest one." Brimstone says.
"That'd be the ground floor. Which we're sitting on right now."
"Any strange slots, buttons, keyholes, shit like that?" I ask.
"Wait a sec. Concealed panel." One says, looking at the wall panel. He pulls out a combat knife and pries it open, revealing a ing a space about the size of a collapsed scroll. Inside are a scroll port and a button. "Bingo." One says. "Hey, Kurt, hand me your scroll." He holds out his armored gauntlet.
"Alright." I say, handing him the device. He pulls out a small black box, presses a button on my scroll and a button on the box at the same time and holds them for a few seconds. Then he slots my scroll into the panel and the button lights up. He presses the button and returns my scroll.
"Ere ya go." One says, a bit of a Texan accent making itself known.
"What did you do?" I ask, not very hopeful of getting an actual answer.
"Sorry, but that's rather classified." He says, as the metal box starts to descend.
"Fair enough." I say. Suddenly I feel something below us. "I get the feeling that we're riding straight into a fuck-all massive fight." I say, feeling five presences below us. We're close to the bottom now.
"Lock and load." Brimstone says, as he stands in front of the door, ready to charge out. Presumably to draw fire. Ignis stacks up behind him.
"Neo and I will be teleporting out when we hit the bottom, I'll take the left side of the door and Neo my dear, you can take the right." I say, stepping to the back of the elevator. "By the way, I can sense five people down there: Ozpin, Pyrrha, Jaune, one incredibly powerful immobile unknown and one hostile."
"So the usual." Two says, checking his marksman AR one last time.
"Yep." Three says, his LMG held at the ready.
"Just remember the mission." Brimstone says seriously.
The elevator approaches the floor I can discern the identity of the hostile. It's Cinder.
'"Neo, Cinder's down there."' I tell her.
'"Good. Time for payback."' Neo grins devilishly.
"Umm, why does the lady seem so… excited?" Three asks, a bit concerned.
"She's about to settle a score with our hostile down there." I say, and Neo grins even more.
"I'll try not to piss her off." Three says.
The elevator dings and the door slides open, revealing a massive, high-ceilinged vault surrounded by shadowed walls. I feel one of the presences die.
*Bamf*
Inside I see Cinder, currently undergoing what looks suspiciously like a power-up phase from a boss battle. Jaune looks like he's freaking out, Pyrrha is freaking out inside some weird glass-coffin-box-type thing, some random lady is dead inside another box-thing, and Ozpin looks like he's thinking that he hasn't had enough coffee today to deal with this shit.
I bring my AR up into the firing position as the rest of the group piles out of the elevator. I acquire my target and open fire. My teammates and Ignis also open fire on Cinder. Her newly-acquired powers block every round, Ivan having used Red Harvest instead of Dragon's Roar and the rest of us using small arms.
In retaliation she releases a wave of auburn energy that knocks us all on our backs, with the exception of Brimstone, who is running at full-speed towards the pair of weird glass coffins and strange machinery, ignoring everything else.
Jaune charges at Cinder, who casually knocks him on his back with a bolt of amber energy.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha shouts, using her semblance to rip the front of her cage off and flinging it away. Jaune is collapsed on the ground, quickly coming to, and trying to get back on his feet. Pyrrha pulls him up and gets into a fighting stance while Jaune gets reoriented for a second or two.
Ozpin looks over his shoulder to Pyrrha, assuming a stance of his own "Take Jaune and get out of here! Find Glynda! Ironwood! Qrow! Bring them here right away! The tower cannot fall!" He orders.
Pyrrha opens her mouth as if to say something before quickly shutting it, nodding, and supporting Jaune as they run to the elevator. "C'mon Kurt! We need to get out of here!" Pyrrha shouts. I slow down a bit to answer her.
"Sorry Pyrrha, I'm not leavin' 'till he does." I point to Sven. "And he's not leavin' 'till they do." I point to Brimstone and Ignis. "See you when this shitshow's over." I say, tossing a two-fingered salute, taking a hand off my rifle to do so.
"See you too, Kurt." Pyrrha says, a bit sadly.
We head our separate ways, and I speed up to catch up with my comrades. As we make our way down the rather long vault to Brimstone's location. We run at full speed past Cinder and Ozpin, currently engaging in a short battle of words before they engage in actual combat.
We reach Brimstone soon after. As we pass behind the coffins, my psychic powers are nulled, almost completely suppressed. All I could feel was my own self. Ignis immidiately starts searching through the tangle of machinery, opening inspection hatches and removing panels as they do so. My team and I take up overwatch.
'"Neo?"' I ask.
'"Yes? Something wrong?"' She responds. 'Good. I can still talk to her.'
'"My powers are suppressed. Except this, for some reason."' I say.
'"That's odd. Maybe it's the machines?"' She gestures with her umbrella.
'"Probably."' I respond. I look over to the fight raging between Cinder and Ozpin. It's actually rather impressive. "We may want to get moving. The fight looks like it'll be coming to an end soon. And Ozpin doesn't look like he's winning."
"I found it sir!" Four proclaims, waving a hand in the air.
"Alright everyone, regroup with Four." Brimstone orders. We all quickly follow that order, partially because it takes us further into the mess of machinery and therefore away from the fight that Ozpin is now most definitely losing.
We meet up with the rest of our little group near Four, who is standing in front of an open access hatch. Inside I can see the back end of a black slab, crossed by a few lines of a purple substance inset into the strange black stone. At least I think it's stone.
"I thought it best to leave this to you sir." Four says.
"And you might want to be quick about it. When the fight's over, that bitch'll start on us." I say, jerking a thumb in the direction of the soon-to-be-ended fight.
"When we're done she's free to try." Brimstone says, eagerly if I'm any judge. He reaches into the small hatch and pulls out the slab, which I now recognize as the artifact that he was showing to Ozpin and his group a few days ago. It looks remarkably like a coffin. 'Holy shit it's a coffin.'
'"Is that a coffin?"'
'"Almost definitely."'
'"Mortis en machina? Do you know what it means."'
'"It's in Latin, an ancient Terran language. If I'm remembering correctly, it means 'death from a machine' but, then again, Latin died as a language at least a millennium before I was even born."'
Brimstone clips his AR to his back and removes his gauntlets, revealing his hands. He places both within two purple-bordered octagons on either side of the top of the coffin, near the bottom end. The purple lines start to glow brightly and Brimstone removes his helmet, clipping it to his belt. For a split second I see an expression of indescribable joy on his face, before he quickly suppresses it.
"Kids. Get ready for some weird shit. Don't worry, they're harmless. Unless you manage to piss 'em off." Brimstone says, his tone amused as a purple light shines from the coffin and engulfs us all.
Now we're standing at one end of a rather impressive room. It is a high-ceilinged hall made of a dark grey stone, with a series of alternating black and white stone columns holding up the ceiling. A series of lanterns line the walls, bathing the stone hall in light.
AN: Prepare for MANY historical references. So what, I'm a history nerd. Either way, the dead deserve to be remembered. If not the soldiers, then at least their battlegrounds. All of these are real battles, most of which are in some way historically significant and easy to google.
Hung on either side of the hall are innumerable large banners, taking up almost all of the available wall space. Each depicts a battle. Near us I see men wielding bows, arrows, spears and more. I see Egyptians, Spartans, Roman Legionnaires and Huns. Above each battle scene hovers the form of what appears to be an angelic woman on wings of fire and light, occasionally two will hover over a battle. One of these appears to be Thermopylae, another the Teutoburg forests.
"C'mon kids, we wouldn't want to be late." Brimstone says, amused. "We're safe here, so take off your buckets and stow your weapons." He orders. We follow his orders to the letter. When everything's safed and stowed we start to walk down the length of the long hall. As we move down the hall, time progresses. I see knights from Europe, samurai from Japan, castle sieges, what appears to be Cowpens, Waterloo, Rorke's Drift and Gettysburg. I see the Somme, Ypres, and Passchendaele, each with a small group of the mysterious figures watching from above. I see Belleau Wood, the Czech Legions fighting their way across Siberia, the Winter War between Russia and Finland. I see the Battle of Wizna and the tenacious Chaussures Ardennais holding the line against the Nazis, I see the fall of France and the Battle of Britain. The D-Day beaches and the Warsaw Ghettos. The victory at Stalingrad and the fall of Berlin. Midway, Iwo, Leyte, Chosin, the Jungles of 'Nam, the Falkland Islands, the blood-soaked sands of the Middle East. Battles without number, from the beginning to the present. And beyond. Battles I know hadn't happened when I left Terra.
I see lasers, railguns and kinetic kill systems. I see nuclear annihilation and biological war. Fighting, weapons and death without end. We near the end and the now-familiar AC forces join the banners. We finally reach the end of the hall, dominated by a massive stained-glass window depicting one final battle, between strange golden warriors and the Alpha Company, surprisingly joined by a small handful of the angelic beings who had once watched from above. A grand set of white stone doors stand below it.
I look down from the window and see a small, unassuming tombstone planted into the floor. It is made from the same strange black stone that the coffin was made out of and inlaid into it in letters made of a strange reddish gem that burned from within are these words.
"In the memory of those who stood and fought and those who follow in their footsteps." I say aloud. Brimstone and Ignis nod. The doors
"That gravestone marks our duty." I hear a woman say, as the doors slide open.