Beep beep beep

An alarm rang in a pitch black room before the lights came on, revealing an older man with mostly grey hair sleeping in bed.

“Sargent Major Williams, the current time is zero five hundred hours,” an automated voice rang out.

Beep beep beep

The man sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Acknowledged, turn off alarm,” he ordered groggily. A high pitched chime rung in acknowledgment. “Another day, another pointless battle.”

——————————————————————-

The current year was thirty-one twenty two based on the current imperial calendar. After the third world war a little over a thousand years ago, a majority of the worlds governments were in shambles or completely nonexistent. In the wake of this power vacuum The Empire emerged, unifying many of the nations with still functioning governments. Shortly after most of the countries without government also joined. The few remaining nations that refused to join were left alone for several years as The Empire rebuilt cities and the people prospered. Those outliers eventually joined on their own accord, or the people overthrew the government after being frustrated about the years of poverty.

——————————————————————-

Sergeant Major Williams washed up and dawned a gray uniform before he walked down the ship halls to the briefing room to go over a mission with his team. Williams was forty six years old with twenty nine years of service in the earth marine corps. He didn’t enter into a combat job, he joined as a heavy armor mechanic. However, through a series of events where his bravery not only led to the saving of many lives at the risk of his own, but assured victory against the attacking enemy force, he was moved into a more so combat role in the Special Forces.

As he walked he eventually came to a window to see the blue-grey void of traveling through hyperspace.

Five hundred years ago humanity left the comfort of their home star system and joined the galaxy as a space faring race. The first four hundred fifty years were nothing short of underwhelming for humanity, as they had yet to encounter any other intelligent races. They did however find dozens of star systems with either habitable worlds or ones that could be terraformed into habitable. With the desire for expansion, The Empire established colonies on these worlds.

Williams arrived at the briefing room but stood by the door instead of walking inside. There he stood with his back against the wall until…

“Morning Sargent Williams.”

Williams turned to face the source of the voice as he stood at attention and saluted. “Good morning Captain.”

The Captain then moved his coffee to his left hand and returned the salute. The Captain was a young man in his late twenties with blonde hair and a relatively muscular build. He wore the same uniform as Williams except for two gold bars on his shoulders.

“Your hair is looking a little long, it looks about time for a trim,” Williams commented.

The Captain ran his free hand through his hair. It was significantly longer than Williams’, just barely in regs.

“I’ll be returning back to earth for a celebration after our successful invasion here, I’d like to be able to blend in. My father is stepping down finally so it’s time for me to inherit his title.”

With the creation of the Empire also came the return of the noble classes. Nobles were also a majority of the officers in the military. Commoners like Williams did have a chance to become officers, but most nobles usually made sure something like that never happened. Williams himself had received multiple medals and probably could have made it, but his weak social skills made it hard to fall in favor of nobles that held high enough rank.

“I see, in that case we’ll have a new lieutenant I presume?”

“Yeah, some new lieutenant fresh from training. But don’t worry I’ll tell him to not ignore you.” The Captain chuckled. “Hell, I’d probably be dead by now if I didn’t take your advice.”

That was no exaggeration. Williams had dealt with many officers since he joined special forces, and the senior enlisted he had served under had ways to deal with arrogant officers. It always started with an injury, then a near death experience, and if they still were too arrogant to listen to those with greater experience they usually would die on a mission. Williams learned the lessons from his superiors, and now that he was in their position, he had have fixed many arrogant officers before they got themselves killed. William justified those decisions by telling himself that he was saving his team's lives from idiots.

Williams sighed and pressed a button beside the door, causing it to slide open before he walked in.

“Room attention!” He called out with authority.

Immediately ten men stood ramrod straight as their captain entered the room, Williams only a step behind. The men were of varying ages and ranks, but they were all brothers, a bond forged in the fires of battle.

“As you were, take a seat,” the Captain said as he arrived at the opposite side of a large screen. “Our mission today marks the beginning of the invasion of our enemy's homeworld. The target,” the screen activated and an alien building appeared. “One of four planetary shield generators. Our mission is to disable, not destroy. Sergeant Major, please take it from here.”

With that Williams pushed his personal feelings aside and proceeded with the briefing.

Thirty years ago humanity faced their first war with another species when they launched an attack on five of The Empire's outer colonies. William was getting ready to graduate highschool at the time, but as soon as he heard about the attack he knew he wanted to help. He enlisted and left for basic training only days after graduating, and joined as a heavy armor mechanic, since he already was well aware of his own mechanical aptitude. 

Despite his aptitude, fate had other plans for him. While serving off world he used his mechanical skills to defend his base during an attack when they were at risk of being overrun. The chain reaction of explosions left the enemy forces crippled so that the actual combat soldiers could win the battle. Unfortunately for him his efforts were noticed and considered ingenious, leading him to being pushed into the special forces, and joining a unit that specialized in sabotage.

Williams briefed the team on the details, though it wasn’t all that different from the rest of his briefings in the past, pretty much only the map changed. Once he was done the Captain stepped back up in front of everyone.

“We’ve done missions like this before, we know what to do, so let’s get it done and all come back here in one piece. HOORAH!”

“HOORAH!”

——————————————————————-

“RELOADING!” A member of Williams' shouted as he ducked behind a corner for cover.

The team infiltrated the shield facility and reached their targets, but were discovered as they were making their escape. 

BOOM

A grenade exploded, eliminating the majority of the enemy in front of them and leaving the survivors in shell shock, making them easy to kill. A three person team then rushed forward to finish off the remaining stunned enemies.

“Anyone injured?” The Captain asked after the team signaled the area was clear.

“Only a flesh wound on Parker’s arm, but I already patched him up,” the medic replied.

“Good to hear. Williams, how’s our escape route looking?” 

William closed his eyes for a few seconds as he felt the surrounding area. “They’re setting up defensive position about two hundred feet down along our escape route, and two more along our alternate route. They’ll be hell to break through.”

“Damn it,” the Captain cursed through his teeth in frustration. Nothing about this mission had gone according to plan except for setting the charges in control room.

“I see another way. There’s a hall fifty feet down and to the left that will take us to an exterior wall we should be able to blast though. We could jump out there. It won’t line us up as well with the evac point, but if we haul ass I think we can make it in time.”

“Any resistance to get there?”

“Everything is shifting constantly, but so far minimal.”

“Alright let’s go, you lead the way.”

Williams led them down the hall, meeting little resistance. A single charge was set, then detonated, creating a large enough opening for everyone to jump out of. Thankfully they were only on the second floor, so the fall wasn’t too high. Once the last of them were on the ground a series of spot lights were on them, with several dozen alien soldiers pointing their weapons at them as well.

——————————————————————

Huff huff huff

Williams was breathing heavily as he leaned against a tree while trying to catch his breath. The enemy was waiting for them. As soon as they were all out the enemy showed themselves, and revealed they had fallen into a trap. Thanks to their snipers who were able to create a diversion, the team was able to break through the enemy troops and make a run for it. Unfortunately the enemy didn’t give up, and proceeded to chase them down. Since they were shooting, the snipers quickly gave away their positions, and the entire hilltop they were hiding in was carpet bombed. The entire hill was set ablaze from the explosions destroying every tree and living creature. As for the remainder of the team, they dropped one by one as they retreated through the nearby forest while returning fire, until only Williams remained. 

He didn’t approve of this war, but he took pride when the explosives went off and disabled the shield generator, making the mission a success. It was now only a matter of time till the Imperial fleet arrived and the invasion would begin.

His breathing had become more labored and his strength nearly exhausted. He took so many shots that his armor was severely damaged, leaving a hole in his back that wouldn’t stop bleeding. He knew he was nowhere near the extraction point, not like he even knew where he was now.

The captain's last order was to run, to not even worry about the extraction point if it meant surviving. This of course made sense since the invasion was no doubt already underway, and it was only a matter of time until imperial forces would arrive on the surface. However, that was too far away now. One by one they fell while returning fire, trying to use the alien forest as cover until only Williams was left. 

The display in his helmet already told him they were all dead, but he still wished he could go back for them. He had lost many brothers and sisters in battle over the years, but they were always able to recover their bodies to take with them. This left a foul taste in his mouth, but it didn’t matter, he knew he wasn’t going to make it out alive either.

An energy blast whizzed by his head, taking out a chunk of the tree. 

“YOU F******, LET ME BREATH D*** it! He yelled back as he dropped to one knee and turned around to return fire. 

He was low on ammo, out of grenades, and his vision was becoming blurry due to blood loss. This was where he was making his last stand. Thanks to his laser sight and the display in his helmet it was still easy to hit his targets, though it did take a little longer to aim. All he had to do was see a red light then pull the trigger. One, two, three down before his rifle was out of ammo. He dropped it and switched to his side arm and continued firing, but still the enemy continued to advance. After a few more shots his cover exploded from artillery fire, and he was sent flying, landing on his back with a large chunk of his armor missing from his chest and blood pouring out. He just lay there as he struggled to breathe as his blood soaked into the alien soil.

The next thing he knew a bipedal reptilian alien was standing over him with his gun pointed at him. It made some noises that almost sounded like croaking mixed with some clicks, then a different combination of the same noises came from another source. 

Willams closed his eyes and smiled, he didn’t need to understand them to know what would happen next. He then for a split second heard the sound of the weapon discharging, then nothing.

——————————————————————-

“Congratulations, it’s a boy,” an older woman announced.

“What? Is this my life flashing before my eyes before I actually die?” Williams asked himself in confusion.

“He’s beautiful,” a young woman said, as he felt himself being handed off.

He tried to open his eyes, but not only was it too bright, but his vision was blury.

“Look John, he had your nose,” the woman said.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because of my scar, but I don’t see it,” a man replied.

“Wait, my father wasn’t named John, and he definitely didn’t have a scar on his nose!”

“Men,” the older woman said with a sigh. “Have you thought of a name yet?”

“We have,” the younger woman said. “Samuel.” 

“What in the f*** is going on here?”