I was already moving to take a shot. However, she was in the way, and I couldn’t make out the target beyond her. They must have been using some version of our active camo to hide from our bio-scanners. It’s the only explanation. 

Miranda’s training must have kicked in as she responded without hesitation to my order and raised her laser rifle to fire at the invisible enemy. I began to move in to help her when I realized my worries were spot on. They always come in threes.

I pivoted only to catch a glimpse of another white-hot blade aiming right for my neck that was nearly upon me. Without any space to react, I did the only thing I could. I shoved my slug rifle and hand right into the blade's path. The white-hot plasma blade sliced clean through my weapon and separated my left hand above the wrist. I didn’t really feel pain, just a tiny prick telling me something was wrong with my body. A wound like this would send a Human into pain shock in no time at all, but not me. 

My sacrifice slowed down the blade as it bit through flesh and metal. I weaved around and aimed roughly where the head should be on the tall Xeno. Maxing out my augmented body, assisted by my suit, I punched through the air with all my strength. I didn’t feel much resistance as I shattered the visor on the alien’s helmet. 

The strength of the punch sent my arm up to the forearm through what used to be its face. I quickly pulled my arm free, kicked up its plasma spear, caught it in midair, and spun around. 

I turned just in time to see Miranda get her arm and rifle kicked in, sending her bouncing across the ground. I took a step and tossed the plasma spear down the hall like a javelin. The spear flickered with white plasma as it barreled down the center of the hallway. The Elunari let out a surprised grunt as the spear impaled it through the stomach, sending it flying ten feet down the hall, pinning it to the wall.

I moved towards the downed Miranda while radioing my squad. “Unknown Elunari Elite units on site. They are using an active camo similar to ours. Bio-scanners do not pick them up,” I warned. I got multiple thumbs up on my HUD, confirming my squad had gotten the message. 

I turned to the down Marine and shook my head. She was wounded across her left arm, but her exosuit had taken a majority of the blow. “You alright, Marine?” I asked.

She was breathing heavily again as she responded. “Yeah.. yeah. Arm’s broke so is my rifle, but I’ll live. Thank you, sir. For saving me.”

I bent over and helped the Marine to her feet. “Just doing my job, Marine. I didn’t know they had active camo,” I said regretfully. 

She gave the corpse of her fallen comrades a quick glance and turned away. “It’s fine. You couldn’t have known. At least they died instantly.” 

With the Marine hobbling behind me, I walked over to the impaled Elunari. There was little threat of a fourth one since they attacked in squads of three but I couldn’t waste more time. The Xeno was still alive and choking on its blood. I silenced the alien’s moans of pain by crushing its windpipe with a swift punch to the throat. 

To confirm my suspicions, I ripped the blue helmet off the corpse and was greeted by the appearance of a pale white Elunari, an Albino as we called them. They were the elites of their race and we didn’t understand much about them. They were some abomination of biologically altered Elunari with a severe amount of combat implants. They were far more dangerous than your average Elunari.

Hell, they were easily the most dangerous Xeno Humanity has fought against for the last twenty years. But why are they wearing this blue amour instead of their standard gray? So many questions needed answering, but I had to take the wounded Marine back to safety. She wouldn’t survive another attack, and I couldn’t protect her from three Xenos at once. 

I grabbed hold of the plasma spear, ripped it out from the corpse, and looked over to the Marine. “Let’s meet up with the rest of the team.”

“Yes, sir. But sir, your hand… are you going to be okay?” Miranda asked me with worry.

I started a light jog so as not to let her fall behind. “I’m fine. The suit is handling the bleeding, and I don’t feel any pain.” 

Besides, this isn’t the first limb I’ve lost, and it probably won’t be the last.

Miranda gave me a dejected nod and followed me closer this time back down to the first floor. According to her file, this was her fourth mission as a Marine Force Recon member. She has a lot to learn, but she is going to make a fine soldier for Humanity. 

By the time we made it to what I would assume was the lobby, everybody else was already there. Apollo had just finished treating a wounded marine and rushed over to me upon noticing my lack of a left hand. “Let me take a look at that, sir.”

“I’m fine, Apollo. Look over this Marine for me, will you?”

“Yes, Commander.” I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he wasn’t all that happy about me refusing medical treatment. 

Bad habit of mine. I know he is just trying to help.

Apollo began to splint Miranda’s arm as I walked over to Nike. He was furiously tapping away on the keyboard only he could see while Hephaestus was effortlessly carrying the large terminal on his back that was being used as a housing for the jammer. Nike didn’t even look up from his work and, without missing a beat, gave me a quick rundown of how the other squads were doing. 

Zeus, Artemis, and their Marines were still clearing the last few patrols coming in to check on the facility after destroying all the outside guards. Nike had managed to keep the jammer up the entire time despite the Elunari’s attempts to stop him.

“Good work, Commando. Have you figured out how to get a proper bio-scan? We still have yet to clear the facility completely, and those active camo users are going to be a problem if we can’t find them first.”

Nike turned around and nodded furiously. “Of course, it shouldn’t be a problem, sir. I’ve already begun working on a way to scan for those soldiers using camo since they are most likely using our tech. Just give me a moment to finish this,” he said quickly.  

It took Apollo another few minutes of tapping away, but he stood up straight and nodded in satisfaction. “Got it, sir. I’ve got four signatures on the fifth floor. Back of the building, near the roof access.”

“Heph, Apollo, stay with Nike and the wounded Marines. After that, Nyx and I will clear out the fifth floor, along with any able-bodied marine.”

Everyone got situated, and my new team consisted of Nyx, six marines, and myself. We separated at the two different stairwells and began our ascent to the fifth floor. Nike couldn’t get an exact pinpoint on the signatures, but we knew they were towards the back of the building near the roof access. There was also a massive dead zone about the size of an entire room. 

The Marine taking point walked first into the hallway, followed by me. He checked the corner and motioned that it was clear and for us to follow. Unfortunately, as soon as I breached the corner, a laser bolt smacked me in the chest where my heart is, and two separate laser bolts tagged the unfortunate Marine in front of me in both his legs. My armor absorbed the laser round, but the Marine wasn’t so lucky. The energy bolts welded his exosuit and armor to his legs, dropping him to the ground in agony. 

I immediately returned to cover as a barrage of laser rounds flooded the hallway. The Elunari didn’t even bother finishing off the poor Marine as he screamed for help. I got a good snapshot of the hallway with just a quick glance. It was about thirty feet long, and there were two on the right side and one on the left firing laser rifles at us. Sadly for them, they had merely trapped themselves.

I banked a modified flashbang off the wall and listened as it skipped across the ground right into the group of soldiers. These flashbangs were specifically designed to counter Elunari. Even Albinos, with their specialized armor, couldn’t withstand the perfectly tuned sound that was meant to burst their eardrums. They were so powerful that the flashbang could even blind us through our gear as well. 

Before the flashbang went off, I was already running down the hallway at full sprint, cracking the plastic tiles under my feet as I ran. I covered my face with my arm and averted my eyes to the side as much as possible. Then, the flashbang went off with a bright blue light, and a deafening bang as the Elunari screeched in pain. 

They all fell to the ground screaming bloody murder while their active camo shimmered and tried to readjust to their constant flailing. I quickly finished the two on the right while they writhed on the ground, impaling their heads with my commandeered plasma spear. 

I thought it best to use this melee weapon in the narrow hallways of the facility. I didn’t have much ammo for my bolt pistol, and I needed it just in case we got into a fight in the forest. This spear would be useless out in the open, so I needed to take advantage of it now. I didn’t need to tell Nyx anything as she stayed close behind me and finished off the last Xeno with a few bolts of her slug rifle.

“Nyx, tend to that marine. I’ll search the dead zone.”

“Yes, sir.” She ran off to help the downed marine, who had stopped screaming at some point, most likely passing out from the pain.

I peered through the glass door into the room the three Albinos were guarding and what I saw surprised me more than the active camo or the blue-armored Albinos. 

Is it a child's playroom? 

I entered the room and looked around, I didn’t see anything, and my bio-scan showed nothing. The walls weren’t made out of the Elunari’s plastic; instead, it was a black metal with a bunch of colorful drawings taped around randomly.

So that’s why this is a dead zone. They are using our metal to block scans. This was probably salvaged from a ship. But why would they put it around this room? And why is it decorated like this? The room was full of oddly shaped wooden toys and other things I didn’t understand. 

But then I heard the faint sound of a door being slammed above me. At the end of the room was a black metal door. I moved quickly and burst through the door, looking up the center of a stairwell. Rather than climbing the stairs, I focused all my strength on my legs and jumped straight up instead of climbing them. I slammed the plasma spear into the side of the stairs. It made a hissing sound as it quickly cut into the plastic and used it as a platform to hoist myself up. 

I left the plasma spear, pulled out my bolt pistol, and breached the door. Being ambushed out in the open without a projectile weapon would mean the end for me if there were more on the roof. 

The door was sent flying as I ran out into the rain, gusts of wind battering against me. I didn’t see anywhere to hide, and there was no shimming of active camo. Only…

Two small figures huddled over the edge at the opposite end of the roof, looking down at the ground, fighting to stay standing against the wind and rain. I walked over to them, and once I was about halfway, I stopped and turned on my translator.

“Stop. You have nowhere else to run.” The synthetic speech from my helmet came out as a garbled mess of sounds that was Elunari’s spoken language. 

Now that I was closer to the two children, I could fully make them out as they stared at me in complete and utter terror. The taller one was body-blocking the smaller one and stretching her arms out wide as if to protect the other. Her light pink dress was fluttering in the storm, but she was glaring at me now. Her fear had turned into defiance.

A slight pang ran through my chest, but I ignored it. I must have lost more blood than I thought.

I’ve never seen an Elunari child before, but I could only guess she was around ten standard years old. However, it was the one behind her that surprised me the most. 

Today just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

Behind her was, of all things, a small Elunari child with pale white skin, hair, and bright pink eyes. He couldn’t have been older than six standard years old. 

So it seems they do start off as children. We always wondered if Albinos were born or made. But it seems we have our answer. 

I was about to repeat my order when the older one just suddenly began smiling, her bone-white teeth and yellow eyes gleaming off the landing pad lights in the darkness. She turned to the little Albino and said something while the rain poured down her face. I was already in a full sprint before the words finished translating in my helmet.

I didn’t know how I knew but I had a bad feeling about what would transpire. My body moved before my brain even registered anything. Time seemed to slow as the translator’s words read out into my helmet.

 “Please, forgive me.”

I watched as the girl's shoulders and arms pulled back and tensed in slow motion. She pushed the child off the edge of the roof with all her strength. I was already on top of them as they were falling. 

I swiped out with my left hand in an attempt to grab them…only to remember I didn’t have a left hand anymore. My painkillers had numbed both my mind and injury.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the child’s screaming and crying face as he fell towards the ground. And I’d never been able to forget the sound he made that day when he hit the ground. 

Why? Why did she have to push him? 

As I stared over the edge, I heard the distinct fhwoop of a slug rifle being fired. I turned in time to see the body of the older girl crumple over, a kitchen knife falling out of her hand as she fell over. 

A weird static feeling rushed my mind. Everything felt numb like I had lost a ton of blood, but my injury wasn’t bleeding. I’ve never felt like this before. Let alone react like this. 

What is wrong with me? 

In my confused state, I gazed toward Zeus, who was standing there, aiming his rifle. Before I knew it, I was standing and pointing an accusing finger at him. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, ZEUS?” I yelled at him.

Yell? When have I— when have I ever yelled at anyone before? My head just feels so empty…

“What do you mean, Commander?! That Xeno was about to stab you in the neck!?” he screamed. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel the unsure and angry look he was giving me.

I looked at the dull kitchen knife on the floor. It wouldn’t have even chipped the paint off my armor. 

“She wasn’t a threat,” I growled back. 

What am I…

Zeus, seemingly surprised at my response, said, “Commander, are you mad at me?! What difference does it make?! I believe you said it yourself. Orders are orders. We were to wipe out any and all personnel at this facility,” he spat at me. 

Wait, am I angry? Is that even possible? I’ve never been angry before. 

“She could have been useful,” I responded half-heartedly, unsure of my own words.

I am… confused.