The fight for the future

555

"Are they gone?" Erica whispers, looking around. I peek out from behind a corner and see nothing.
"We're good. Keep quiet though." I whisper and my group relaxes. We have been whittled down to six members. Myself and Kate, Erica and Lee, and Stel and Ella's boyfriend. He sits down and takes off his helmet, exhaling sharply.
"We're done for." He sighs and is immediately whacked in the head by Stel.
"That's no way to talk." She says coldly.
"Knock it off." I snap, "if we're going to get out of this we have to stay calm, not be freaking out like some fucking recruits!"
"Youre one to talk..." Kate says sadly and it's true. I am more scared than I ever have been and it's starting to show.
"Alright." I say, calming down. "We need to sneak back to the cave entrance without being detected so we can call in reinforcements."
"Sounds like a plan." Erica says, hefting a heavy repeating blaster she picked up a few hours ago. The weapon has six barrels that rotate around a central housings. I click my helmet back into place and grab my own rifle and walk forward, everyone else following. We make our way to the mouth of the small cave we'd been hiding in and I hear a communicator beep. I patch it through to all our helmets, a little surprised that we'd get a connection down here. The transmission comes as a video feed taking up the top right hand corner of my HUD. I can see the faces of the others as it begins to play. I see a young boy of about eight trying to figure out how to position the camera. I notice some aliens a few hundred feet away and we all take cover as the boy rights the camera.
"Is Lella there?" He asks, his voice full of longing and happiness, "I've got something to show her!"
"Who's Lella?" Erica asks, a little puzzled.
"Ella. I'm her brother." He says, puffing up his chest with pride." I see that Tristan, her boyfriend, is trying very hard not to burst into tears.
"She's not feeling well." He says, trying to keep his composure. "What did you want her to see?"
"I drew her a picture for her birthday!" He shouts proudly. He then holds up a rather intricate drawing of a soldier in full battle gear standing in front of what looks like a family. The soldier has his or her weapon aimed off the page. "Im a little late though..."
"What's the soldier protecting their family from?" I ask.
"Anything." He says, "all the bad guys."
"That's good. Well we have to go now. Well tell her you called. What was your name again?" I say as Tristan cocks his rifle.
"Jackson. Tell her I say happy birthday!"
"We will Jackson. Don't worry." Erica says.
"Goodbye." He replies sweetly before terminating the connection.
Without saying a word Tristan marches out from behind cover and fires at the alien patrol. Within seconds a one sided firefight ensues. Tristan heroically fires his weapon into the aliens but eventually they overpower him. I see two blasts take out this knees and he falls to the ground. Two more shots disable his shoulders and a third incinerates his head, his burnt helmet landing at our feet. Everyone is frozen in shock and we quickly duck back into the small alcove to hide from the patrol.
"What should we do?" Kate asks me, taking off her helmet, tears streaming down her face.
"For now," I say, looking around, "we rest." She looks at me with a look of gratitude and immediately drops her gear. Lee, Erica and Stel all do the same. I take off my helmet and hold Kate in my arms while she cries softly as the deaths of her friends crash down upon her. I feel grief start to fill me but I suppress it. There will be a time to grieve later. Right now I have to be the leader and make sure all my people survive. Erica is sitting in Lee's lap, rocking back and forth with her arms around him. I see tears running down his face. She murmurs something to him and he stops crying and hugs her tight. Kate hugs me and I hug her back. After about three hours I motion for the group to move out and we continue back towards the cave entrance. Three hours later we come across Ella's dead body in the entrance to the cave. I can see on my thermal scans that were close to where we dropped into the cave from the mansion above. A bolt of plasma strikes the cave wall just above my head and we spring into action. Erica powers up her weapon and the barrels start to spin. Lee drops to one knee in front of her and fires at the alien army advancing toward us. Stel takes up a position five feet to our left and begins launching arrows at the enemy. Kate and I take up positions on either side of them and open fire on the alien troops.
"Alright guys, here goes nothing." Erica says, before pressing down the triggers on her weapon and unleashing a deadly stream of plasma fire. Green blood explodes out of the nearest alien as it is torn apart by the plasma. Tens, maybe even hundreds of aliens are cut down by our combined fire. A bolt of plasma slices across my side, exposing the metal endoskeleton underneath it. Several more burn away my jacket and skin, revealing more of the silver metal beneath it. The aliens aren't holding back as they try and kill us, firing plasma, lasers and grenades all in our direction. I dive in front of the group as a rocket is launched in our direction. The explosion sears at my back and flings me forward into the cave wall. My helmet shatters as I make contact with the hard rock.
"J'son! Are you alright?" Kate calls as I stand up.
"I'm alright!" I shout back, running back to the group.
"Nice going dumass" Stel says, turning around. A green alien detaches itself from the horde and races toward us. We fire at it in frustration as it dodges the bolts of plasma. It somersaults over Erica's head, diving straight for Stel. She sees it and it sinks its claws into her chest. Erica, Lee, Kate and I tear it's flesh apart as the beast rips Stel to pieces. It drops her body onto the ground. It's green maw dripping blood and gore as it snarls at us.
"Bastard." I say before shoving a grenade down its throat. Lee then picks it up and hurls it back into the crowd where it explodes. Showering it's companions with its insides. With no time to grieve for our fallen friend we plunge back into battle. An alien rushes at us wielding twin plasma swords. Lee stares it down as it runs at him, screaming over the din of battle. He pulls out his sidearm and fires four shots. The beast pitches foreword and stabs him right through the chest with both swords. Erica runs toward his body, cutting down all the aliens in her path. We cover her as she drags him back to our position. She takes off her helmet and listens to him as he whispers something in her ear. She smiles at him and says,
"Yes. Of course I will." Then she clasps his bloody hands and he smiles. Then he pulls the pin out of a grenade and hurls it one last time. It destroys dozens of aliens in an inferno of plasma.
"Ha. That'll teach em." He wheezes. Then his eyes close and he's gone. Erica stands up. Her eyes glistening with tears. But they're not tears of sadness. They're tears of rage. Regardless of what happens she keeps fighting. Even when the aliens rip off her arms she crawls onto them and tears their throats out with her teeth. It takes fifty plasma bolts to finally kill her. When she dies I realize we're doomed. Kate lost her helmet during the fight so when she looks at me I can see the fear in her eyes. I look at her and nod. And she drops her rifle. Most of the tissue surrounding the metal endoskeleton has been shot off. My face however is mostly intact save for one exposed metal eye. She walks over to me and falls into my arms. I look down at her as she looks up at me. I then wrap her in my arms and kiss her as the Aliens close in. I feel my reactor click into overcharge and she breaks off the kiss. She looks down to see the red progress bar as my reactor core heats up. Her brown eyes are full of sadness but also glimmer with happiness as she smiles up at me.