“What do we do?” Ortiz yelled. Mark saw that his symbol was right in the front line.
“KILL!” The Troopers yelled back, pushing forwards.
Mark cut down a Chosen, and an explosion going off to his left peppered him in shrapnel.
Tyler and Alexis stood out from the carnage.
“Breakthrough!” Alexis yelled.
Mark cut down a stunned PAC, and watched the one behind them get a blade through their chest.
Mark saw a security contractor who looked like they were stunned at what they had done, at the sheer level of violence.
“On me!” Mark yelled, and Tyler and Alexis moved to his side as they turned like a wall to bring the Chosen under three sides of contact.
Other people were yelling ‘breakthrough’ as Troopers linked with security contractors and smashed into the Chosen.
The PACs fought hard, with everything they had, like caged animals trying to find an escape, but their exit had closed behind them and there was no escape any more.
Mark lowered his blade as Tyler cut down the last PAC.
He looked around, looking at the dissolving lines of PACs. There were enough Troopers to deal with that.
They had started with four hundred thousand Troopers, now there were less than ten thousand alive. None of the dots on Mark’s view were green, it looked like fall on Sacremon. Reds and yellows on a field of black. Behind the barricades, there were blues thrown in as people were being put into cryo.
Medics were everywhere, with Troopers doing what they could to help one another.
“It’s over,” Mark sighed, breathing, and standing, his blade held in his hand.
He couldn’t believe or understand it. Some of the Chosen tried to surrender, but the Troopers cut the last of them down.
“Yeah,” Tyler didn’t sound as if he believed his own words.
“Thought that they were going to take five hours,” Alexis said, standing next to Tyler and opening her helmet.
Tyler opened his as well.
“You look like shit,” Mark laughed, looking at Tyler’s hair as he tried to get it out of his eyes, sweat and grime covering him.
Mark pressed a command to open his helmet.
“At least I’m not too scared to open my helmet. Fuck, it smells bad out here,” Tyler said, putting an arm around Alexis, still holding his vibra-blades.
“Fucking thing’s broken,” Mark growled.
“It’s true then, you’ve just been hit in the head too many times,” Alexis laughed.
Tyler laughed as well. It wasn’t that funny, but they were alive and everything seemed so much better after being that close to death for so long.
“Thanks, sis,” Mark sighed.
“No problem,” Alexis winked.
“Now come here you.” She grabbed Tyler, pulling him down, kissing him long and deep. Tyler only had eyes for her as they came apart. They talked in soft tones, smiling and having a moment to themselves.
Mark smiled, thinking about the future.
Once Harmony had been confirmed dead and buried, then they could retire out of this life. Westerly Three Crew had a good ring to it. Mark was going to use Dashtund’s ideas and turn them into a security force and Quentin’s dream of a policing force.
He’d expand the Greenhouses and offer people money to get started on their own companies.
The future was exciting, and filled with possibilities.
A message told him Jerome, Young, and Bobbie would be okay, just a few new limbs, and Jerome was in cryo because they didn’t have the blood on hand to top him up.
Mark felt the tension slip from his body as he walked towards Ortiz and Dominguez. Towards his new life.
POSTSCRIPT
You can check out what I’m working on and upcoming releases through the following means:
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Thanks again for reading
The Victor’s story will continue in Vanguard: Age of Elves
Coming 2017
Earth (Harmony War Book 5) Page 25