Buck sat in the troop hold of a Caliban Support vehicle, headed toward the last known location of what people were calling the aliens leader. He had even heard some people refer to it as God. Buck wasn't sure about all that. He wasn't a religious man by any means, but to call this thing God? He shook the thoughts from his head and scanned the troop hold. Directly across from him was Storm Three, the Fencer unit he had seen emerge from hell. To his right, towards the back of the hold was three of the four members of Storm One. Where their Air Raider was, Buck had no clue. To his left, at the front of the hold was the young woman that had helped him in the previous battle. He had learned her name was Holly.
It was silent in the hold, everyone probably mentally preparing for the upcoming battle. The Ranger on Storm One had his head dipped, and eyes closed. There were rips in his combat suit, and some of the armor plating covering his chest had been partially melted. Their Wing Diver twirled a lock of her brown hair, staring forward. A crack ran down the length of her visor and there was a deep gash in her thigh. The tissue was already being repaired by the nanomachines present in the vehicle. Their Fencer was stoic as ever, not moving a muscle. He looked like a statue. Buck spotted a trickle of blood running down the man's neck where it was exposed between his chest armor and helmet. He was about to ask the man if he was okay when a deep voice across from him broke the silence. "You're not a soldier are you?" Buck turned to see the Fencer across from him. He had taken his helmet off and was looking at Buck now. The man had dark skin, a buzzcut of black hair, a full, long beard, and brilliantly white eyes. "It should have never gotten to the point where we called civilians in." He continued with a stern, yet polite voice and leaning forward. He almost sounded English. "With all due respect sir, I think we're all soldiers now." Buck replied. He saw the man glance over at Holly. She was oblivious to the conversation. She had ear buds in and was slightly rocking her head back and forth. The man leaned back and sighed, "isn't that the unfortunate truth." After a short pause he added, "The name is Leonard. Leonard McKay." He reached a hand out. Buck grabbed it and squeezed. "Buck Ballardy" he replied. "Very nice to meet you Buck." Leaonard said, still stern faced. He turned to his companion. "This here is Jensen, our close range specialist. I won't tell you his first name, he'd kill me." He slapped the guy on his shoulder. He had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and a longish goatee. Buck looked at the man as he said, "damn right." That put a smile on Bucks face. Everyone could use a bit of light banter right about now. "And this here is-" Leonard turned to the vacant seat next to him. His hand lay on the empty padding of the seat. His eyes flitted to another vacant seat. "I uh..." Leonard trailed off, his voice shaking. Jensen put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's okay Leo." Buck spotted a tear running down Leonards face. Jensen's eyes looked wet as well. He couldn't imagine what these men were going through. He had heard of Storm Three before, back when they were the Grim Reapers. Not a single casualty. They were responsible for the completion of some of the most dangerous operations around the world. Taking out an entire spiders nest by themselves in Brazil, going toe to toe with an Erginus in India and coming out on top. Buck had even heard a story of them in South Korea, taking control of an alien landing craft and crashing it into a teleportation ship, bringing it down on a horde of giant ants. They were legendary. Seeing the deaths of half of his team over such a short period of time had to have been devastating. "I'm sorry." Buck said sincerely. Leonard nodded and wiped the tear away. He brought his hands to his face and stared at the ground. Jensen brought his friend in close, hugging him. He could hear a soft whimper.
Not wanting to disturb them, he turned to Holly and nudged her arm. She recoiled slightly, giving him a sideways glance. She reached up and removed an ear bud. "Whats up?" She said nonchalantly. Buck heard a slight tremble in her voice. "What're you listening to?" He asked. She brushed some of her short and frayed dirty blonde hair with green highlights out of her light green eyes. "I don't think you would know them" she said looking up at him. "You're umm..." she eyed Bucks short, graying brown hair. "Hey now I'm only forty-eight!" He said with a smile on his face. "Try me." Holly let out a soft chuckle and smiled. "Bowling For Soup." she said softly, the tremble in her voice gone. Buck smiled widely. "That, is one of my favorite bands" he said. Holly gave a warm smile and looked away, putting the ear bud back in.
Buck was happy to see the young woman smiling. She was only nineteen and had seen so much violence in her life. He wished she never had to go through what she did. Buck remembered seeing her from the community he had helped build at the edge of the city after the war started. He had never talked to her or her family. He had known that her father and mother both joined the militia, well before he himself did. He also remembered how Holly reacted at the news of her parents not returning after leaving on a supply run. She had joined the militia the day she was of age after that. Bucks folks were gone long before the war. They had died peacefully. He was at peace with it. He couldn't imagine how much the loss of her parents had hurt Holly. Yet here she was, smiling in the back of a troop hold ready to go to war.
Buck felt the vehicle coming to a stop, the back bay doors opening and lowering to the ground. Storm One was the first team out, already spreading out and searching. Leonard grabbed his helmet, stood and put a hand on Bucks shoulder. "It's good to have you with us Buck." He turned to Holly and nodded. He put his helmet on, looked at the pair for a second longer, and left the hold. Jensen gave them a slight nod and followed. "Let's do this" Holly's confident voice echoed in the almost empty vehicle. Buck turned to her as she took her ear buds out, and hoisted her rifle. He wasn't looking at a scared teenager. He was looking at a confident woman ready to fight and die to save her planet.
Buck exited the Caliban with Holly close behind him. It looked like Command tried to squeeze every last resource they could for this operation. Soldiers were flowing out of armored vehicles and transport helicopters and spreading throughout the city. They seemed disorganized. Buck was struck with a revelation. Their ranks were made up of mostly civilians. Not even militiamen. Most of them looked as if they had never held a gun before. The young, the elderly, it seemed everyone was here to fight. "Were they forced to?" Buck couldn't help but think. At least their forces were bolstered by a company of Blacker Tanks. A squad of attack helicopter flew over the ground forces, searching. "Wonder where all this was during our last battle." Holly's voice came from behind Buck, sounding disgusted. He slowed his pace to walk with her. "That's a good question. Probably would have made a big difference." he replied. Buck didn't know what to think. On one hand they had a lot of firepower for the fight ahead. On the other, how could Command hold back this many reinforcements from the battle with the flagship? "Bastards." Holly mumbled angrily. "Agreed" Buck decided.
He spotted Leonard and Jensen through a squad of fighters. They were with Storm One, hunched over a small laptop on some supply crates underneath some tarps draped over some metal beams jutting from the ground. He nudged Holly and pointed. They heard Leonards deep voice booming through the noisy space. The two of them jogged over. "-and we will be coming up 15th Street, just south of the stadium." Leonard looked up from the map as he finished, welcoming the two with curt nods. "This is where that thing was spotted last." He pointed to a satellite image of a ruined and crumbling stadium on the laptop screen. "The report was sent from our Spritefall satellite twenty minutes ago. It was difficult to understand the woman at first, but we figured it out." Holly sat on a crate and Buck stood next to her, arms crossed. Leonard continued. "We will converge on the stadium from all sides. Tanks first, infantry after them. Our attack helicopters will circle the area, acting as reconnaissance, and providing covering fire wherever need be." Leonard looked at each man and woman in turn. "We will kill this bastard. We will save our planet. We will avenge the fallen."
"God damn right" Buck heard Holly mutter. He shared the same thought. "Let's get to it people. Buck and Holly, you're with us." Leonard finished. Buck was surprised but accepted the task with a nod. He looked at Holly, she was already standing.