As it turned out, I didn’t actually need to worry about the missiles. The sound of retaliatory rocket fire burst from behind me, blue-tipped weapons streaking towards the inbound WMD’s. Pausing for a second to disable most of the electronics on the war machine I was using, my head craned for the sky and stared, waiting for the inevitable EMP blast that’d come from nuclear detonation.

BOOM.

Oddly enough, there was no mushroom cloud, no major concussive force; simply what appeared to be a white sun in the sky straining against an arcing blue net until it vanished. This process repeated itself a few times, but that wasn’t really my concern at the moment. It wouldn’t just be a few nukes blasted at us if it was an invasion – aircraft were my worries at the moment.

“Move, damnit!”

The CINC did have a point – it was useless of me to try to sit there and be a spectator. After all, I wasn’t a Commander any longer. Angel, who had taken my role, had moved forward, taking up a station near the airport, her ‘lathe spraying raw metal on the fighter being produced. My job was simple – keep her alive and try not to die. Her orders? I had no idea.

More rocket fire – the planes were here. There were plenty of bombers, gunships, a couple of interceptors and some fighters. I wouldn’t be able to do anything aside from watch, the AA cannons booming around me with guided rockets tracking onto the COPE air force, our own fighter patrols picking off the slow-moving bombers The dogfight in the sky lasted for several minutes, losses high on the COPE side thanks to our superior firepower. On the other hand, though, their bombers had managed to destroy a lot of out stored energy reserves, sensors were down and we’d lost a few factories. Not a deadly blow, but we’d miss those forces and a lack of radar left us wide open.

“Rosa – take a small force and go to the waypoint. Defend it at all costs and report any incoming.”

With Angel running around to re-build the batteries to store the massive energy reserves and some small radar towers it was now my turn to step beyond the perimeter to scout out any incoming forces. I would have appreciated a few more troops, but fifteen light infantry with two combat engineers would likely be enough.

I moved forward behind the three lead infantrymen – or women, I had no idea at the time and wouldn’t get the chance – studying the small tactical map. It would have been faster to airlift us there since the engineers moved like sloths, but the transport units couldn’t be spared.

“Angel, how’s the situation back home?”

“Just fine. Come back alive, my love.”

“I promise.”

I giggled a bit. The odds were that they’d send a light exploratory force and that we’d have air support to back us up until the weapon emplacements were finished.

“Rosa, the radar is up. Orders are cancelled – we need you to stall the tanks.”

“Uh, what?”

Of course, they had fucking tanks. Just dandy, but if it were a small number, we’d be able to scrap one or two with heavy losses.

“Ten of them. Good luck, t-”

Shit. I couldn’t hear the rest of it from static.

There wasn’t much I could do – the engineers were already making a barricade of dragon’s teeth. While this would stop forward motion, it wouldn’t do shit for covering us. Given that we were in a desert in daylight, we were pretty much target practice for the incoming Catholic fucking cyborgs mounted in tanks.

Wasn’t life grand?

“You in the rear – advance and open fire. Take evasive maneuvers and shoot for the engines. Self-destruct when they’re close.”

I shook my head with a sigh. Of course they wouldn’t do much in terms of damage, but for every tank they could stop in their suicide run, it was one less trying to kill me. After all, I’d made a promise and I fully intended to keep it. About three minutes later, the nine remaining tanks climbed over a sand dune, one of them slightly burned and pocked. There just weren’t enough of us to stop it. Without waiting for my orders, the rest of my squad charged forward into battle, quickly blown away by the co-ordinated and deadly precise shots of the tanks.

Me? I froze.

Why had I been sent here? What did they expect me to do, aside from die? Maybe that last bit was “traitor.” Yeah, fitting to send me on a death run to eliminate the problem and still call me a noble hero for the cause. Take one for the team, boys; we’ll bury what’s left of you after we finish cloning you. Only three of the tanks bothered to turn towards me, the rest simply shelling the barricade out of the way before trundling onward. Flattering of them to assume I wasn’t a threat.

And also wrong.

As the turret of one pointed at me and fired, I held out my hand and pushed with my mind, hard. The explosive shell that had emerged quickly changed trajectory as though it had been caught, arcing back down to explode against the armored shell from where it’d came. Not fatal, but that’d discourage any more shots, hopefully. Aiming the cannon strapped to my right, I pulled the trigger and watched the electric pulse crack through the air, blasting the top off the injured tank, which promptly exploded.

I smirked and turned, right in time to catch a nice shell to the side. The explosion was larger than I’d thought – I was pushed back through the air in an uncontrollable spin, almost blinded by pain from the burn, shrapnel, and concussive force. After what seemed like an eternity, I impacted against the ground headfirst, hearing a sharp crack as the machine’s neck broke and flew off somewhere.

“Sorry, babe…”

It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to keep that promise. Staring at grim death not thirty feet away, I closed my eyes and waited, lungs burning, leg a solid mass of pain. So much for being the alpha and omega, eh?

I heard the sound of what seemed to be a giant zipper, and braced myself. The shots never came, although there were some loud explosions in front of me right where the tanks had been. Opening my eyes, I looked around, seeing only a deep scorch mark in the ground like an arrow, shimmering heat, and… Angel, looking in my direction with the barrel of her own cannon smoking.

“You did promise.”

I managed to smile before closing my eyes again, feeling through the machine’s sensors that it was being repaired and restored.

Life-support active.

A needle-like prick in my arm, a sudden warm sensation in my veins, and then a fade into silence as the painkillers kicked in.