“Word from the senate is that human battalions might have alien detachments in the coming months. I say we detach them and let them freeze in space. Why would we join up with the enemy? Even if this deal with the Xan works out, how can we trust them to fight beside our brothers and sisters?” — From Bucker Jarlson Tonight, January 3266.

  The ship re-materialized and immediately hit turbulence that would’ve made Dallas International Airport proud. Not only had they jumped in at an incredibly high speed, but they did it inside the planet’s thermosphere. Even though that part of the atmosphere had comparatively little in terms of gas particles, it was still significantly more than the vacuum of space.

  Within seconds, the ship’s nose dipped and began hurtling toward the surface. Alarms voiced their dislike of the situation, but the pilots didn’t panic. In fact, they doubled down and pushed even further on the stick, dropping them at an even greater speed. Without an audible connection to Summers, the squad couldn’t hear the words silently flowing from the captain’s lips. Heartbeats later, those orders became clear as a thick blanket of blue Aegis Light enveloped the ship.

  As they fell, the surface of this new world approached faster than Jack could comprehend. On one hand, the sheer natural beauty of the planet was something incredible to behold. On the other, he recognized he was essentially falling out of the sky in a big steel box.

  According to their mission briefing, this planet was practically paradise, and had no artificial help getting that way. It boasted a single continent the size of Earth’s prehistoric Pangea and had the ecological diversity to match. Mountain ranges spanned the landmass where tectonic plates had collided to form the supercontinent millions of years ago. Rivers snaked across the land like the veins of a primordial being, eternally circulating the lifeblood of this lush world. Unlike Earth, its evolutionary cycle hadn’t created a sentient being. Because of that, it was untouched by the pollution that intelligent life so often wrought.

  Breaking through the mesosphere and into the stratosphere, action erupted on the bridge. The pilot pulled up hard on the stick and ripped them out of the dive. Simultaneously, the Shields technician reshaped the heat barrier into a parachute to break their speed even faster. With a lurch, the Dragoons kicked the suspensor engines into high gear and fired thrusters against the planet’s pull. Each action rocked the ship, but before they reached the troposphere, they regained control of the craft. Finally releasing a breath for the first time in what felt like minutes, Jack dropped his head back in relief.

  They were flying fast and low, but that didn’t stop the young soldiers from taking in every sight they could. Before long, they saw an enormous structure in a field of grass with its hangar doors open and waiting. The building itself looked nothing like any military installation they’d seen before. Reminiscent of a Greek villa, it appeared more like a resort than an outpost designed to defend the planet.

  “Welcome to Erochea, the easiest and most comfortable posting you will have while serving in the AHF,” Hawkins said when the ship touched down inside the hangar bay. “Our time here is not to fight or defend anything. The orbital defense grid can handle any problem long before we see it. Instead, you will spend the next six months recovering and training when you feel up to it. Our company took several injuries, and it’s time to sit back and lick our wounds.”

  “When we get the all-clear, grab your gear and get off the ship. Outside, build a formation so the Captain can talk to you about the mission and the planet. After that, the squad leaders will get bunk and room assignments. Get settled in and be ready to report for End of Day. Before and after that last formation, you’re free to go your separate ways. Just don’t get into too much trouble.”

  “Take a break before you hurt yourself,” Warren said sleepily from his position beneath a tree. They’d been on this new planet for a few weeks, and in that short time, an incredible amount of mental healing had taken place.

  It turned out the AHF knew that soldiers were, in fact, people. And those people need to unwind once in a while. Warren once thought the facilities aboard the Washington were enough to help a person decompress, but they did not compare to a few weeks of knowing you wouldn’t see combat.

  A short distance away, Nessa was doing everything she could to master an ancient meditative martial art. Unfortunately for her, mastering that art required a lifetime of dedication, not stubbornness and a few halfway decent attempts.

  “I know, but dammit if it doesn’t feel good to fight without the rage,” she said, walking through the tall grass to take a seat next to him.

  “So wait, you’re not training this hard out of some weird self-delusion that you need to be better than any fighter that’s ever lived?”

  “Not today,” she laughed. “After everything with you and Thea, I’ve realized the world isn’t necessarily against me. I can’t allow myself to become soft, but I also can’t become so consumed by fury that I get people hurt.”

  “Including yourself?”

  “Including myself.”

  “This is a major shift for you,” Warren said, sending the Warrior Drone she’d been sparring with back to base.

  “Right now, I’m afraid it’s just a surface change. I want to be this person free of anger and hate, but no matter how hard I try…”

  Warren waited as she thought. The fact that she’d come far enough to recognize her anger as a problem was more than he’d ever expected.

  “The more I try to forget him, the more I see his damnable face,” she growled, painful memories twisting her expression into a scowl. “I want to go back to Earth and spit on his grave again and again. I want to scrub the very memory of him from my past, but I know doing so would take away from who I am.”

  Turning to stare off into the mountains, she continued, “I… I don’t want to wipe away who I am. I’m mean, I’m gruff, I’m willing to tear my enemies apart with my bare hands, but… I’m also loyal, I’m competitive, I’m a perfectionist, and I’m ok with all that.”

  “So why are you trying so hard to change?” he asked softly.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Because I don’t want to lose you, any of you. You’re the family I never had, and I’m afraid that if I don’t become something better, I’ll drive you away. I’ve been a warrior my entire life. I don’t know how to be anything else.”

  “That’s what you have us for,” he said, placing an arm across her shoulders, “But we don’t want you to be someone you’re not. If you want to be a ball of rage, well… I will gladly point you at the enemy and let go.”

  “Alright… But right now, I want to be pointed at that mountain top,” she said, pointing at a stone peak a few kilometers away.

  “You don’t think we’ve hiked enough already?” He complained, “I can get us a ride and we can literally fly up there, you know.”

  “Nope, we’re going to hike… then you can get us a ride back down.”

  Climbing to his feet, Warren grumbled something about cyborgs being stupid and set off behind his best friend.

  “I never experienced anything like this on Earth,” Thea said, gazing across the harbor of a fishing village nestled a short way away from the garrison and taking a sip of wine. “This is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”

  “I like to imagine this is what Earth could be, if we stopped destroying it.” Jack replied, lost in thoughts of his own.

  “It could be, if the UHR would put in place the same level of protections they have here. But then again, this place is so secure, our responsibilities are basically non-existent.”

  “True, the need for only two people per twelve-hour shift makes this a cakewalk.”

  “Speaking of shifts, when’s your first?”

  “Three days from now,” Jack replied, taking a pull on his drink.

  They’d come down from the garrison early that morning to explore the trails and take in the sights of their temporary home. After a long day of walking, they stopped at a small restaurant and sat at an outside table with a beautiful view, eating seafood neither could identify. That didn’t stop them from enjoying the meal, but they did wonder what marine life on Earth would be like if eating it was still safe to eat.

  At the center of the table, a bowl of vibrant orange shellfish sat cooked to perfection in a white wine sauce. Beside it sat bread so fluffy, it almost melted in their mouths. If that wasn’t enough, the two soldiers were treated to a wonderful selection of drinks that were created, bottled, and consumed all inside the village.

  “Would you ever consider a place like this when we retire?” Thea asked, dipping a slice of bread into the sauce.

  “Are we actually allowed to own property? If so, I say we buy our mountain right now and start construction.”

  “Still not sure I want to trust our house to someone we can’t oversee.”

  “True,” he said, staring at the water. Perking up and twisting his lips into a wry smile, he asked, “Hey, have you ever been sailing?”

  “You know I haven’t,” she replied blankly.

  “Yeah, I know, but I had to find a way to bring this up; I rented a boat.”

  “Oh, really now? Before you drag me onto a floating death machine, I have a few questions.”

  “Ok?”

  “First, do you know how to use a boat?”

  “Well… no, but I have Bob,” he floundered.

  “I’ll give you that. Second, is it just us, or are we bringing the kids along?”

  Jack laughed. Over the past year, the idea that the squad was their family had become so entrenched Thea had given up and started referring to their squad mates as her children. If it would have remained between them, the joke would have died off a long time ago. Unfortunately, her AI was even more of a jerk than Bob, and had gleefully sent everyone a clip of her admitting to her status as ‘mom.’

  “Nah, let’s leave them with the babysitter.”

  “Then what the hell are we doing sitting here?” she said, jumping up and grabbing a bottle of wine, “Well come on, we don’t have all day.”

  A short time later, the couple sat on the deck of a little sailboat enjoying the peaceful bliss of having nothing to do. The water was a brilliant emerald green and clear enough to see straight down to the white sand beneath. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the two soldiers found themselves lost in the hues created by the clouds.

  “I still can’t believe this is a posting,” Thea said, refilling her glass from a bottle beside them.

  “If we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s not. It is a place to recover because we got our collective asses kicked.”

  “This is sadly true,” she said with a sigh. “What do you think is going to come of those things showing up?”

  “Well, they’ve already armed our enemies with weapons we can’t defend against, taken several worlds, and tortured civilians to within an inch of their lives. What more can they do?”

  “War. An actual war, not these things we claim are wars, but are nothing more than brief engagements.”

  “It’s going to be bad,” he said, letting his eyes shift to the dark sky in the east, “If we’re just now finding these things after a thousand years in space, what else is out there that we haven’t found? We were arrogant to think we could dominate everything.”

  “Do you really think a species that is higher up the food chain cares about humans and our fifty worlds?”

  “No,” he admitted, “Even with that much land in our kingdom, we probably have nothing compared to some others.”

  “I almost want to go back to a time when I didn’t know these threats existed. A time when I thought the AHF was just a useless tax burden.”

  “Sometimes I do too,” he said, grabbing her hand. “I had something made for us.”

  Reaching into a pocket, Jack pulled out a pair of vials filled with a silvery liquid. Handing one to her, he stripped off his shirt and motioned for her to do the same.

  “What is this?”

  “Hopefully something you’ll like,” he said with a grin, “they are nanobots. More specifically, they’re Li-Tech nanobots that are linked through optic energy. Pour it on your skin, and your AI will take over and create an image.”

  “It’s a Li-Tech tattoo?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why… why are you giving me a Li-Tech tattoo?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Because if something destroys your body while you have this, my AI will store your mind until I link up with the ship. Or in the other direction, it can store my mind until the quartermaster can offload the memory.”

  “So having a tattoo gives me immortality? This makes me sound like a cheap movie hero that can’t be killed.”

  “No, you can die… but this severely reduces the risk of permanent death,” he said, unscrewing the top of his vial and pouring it onto his shoulder. “We will be able to save one another, no matter what. Sure, whoever has to use it will be Steel Cast, but they would be alive.”

  “Thank you,” she said, taking the vial and repeating his action by pouring it onto her own shoulder.

  Jack braced for the pain, but when the tiny robots burrowed under his skin, he felt little more than a tickle. Looking over at Thea, he watched as her nanobots formed the symbol of the Phantom Corps. Apparently, the pattern was not something they could choose consciously.

  Jack looked back at his own shoulder, watching as the machines created the Optic patch and fell dormant. As much as he wanted to pick his own design, this image—the symbol of his own corps—felt right.

  “Is that it?” Thea asked disappointedly.

  “I think we need to feed them a little Light and they will connect.”

  Flooding the tattoos with Light, both soldiers watched as the symbols flared, then faded. Since the only way to test them was to die, they just had to trust that if one of them died in battle, the other would make sure they returned.

  "If they actually allow us out in twenty years, do you think the others will follow?" she asked, sliding up to him and returning her gaze to the sky.

  “I would be surprised if they didn’t. But we have a long way to go before that point,” he said, wrapping an arm around her. “We have an entire war to make it through, but I trust our team.”

  It was the only thing they could do.

  No matter how bleak the future looked, no matter how dark the days had been, Jack was confident they would pull through.

  They’d laughed, they’d cried, and one had even died. But in the end, there was only one path forward.

  The AHF made them into something new. It has beaten them like raw steel in a blacksmith’s forge. Then, they were pulled from the anvil and tempered in the pain of loss. It had been difficult, but in the end, they’d made it through stronger than before.

  It was time to move on, to harden into something better, and become the soldiers the UHF—and humanity—needed.

  It was time to rise once more.