The Lightning

I noticed a rather large swarm of black (or were they white? I couldn't tell and I didn't really care) specks on the horizon. Raising my sniper up to my eye, I peered down the scope to reveal a rather large mass of incoming flying things, some of which were pulling trailers with the horned ones riding in them. They were led by two things that had both wings and a horn and also appeared to be larger than the others. Great, flying MAX units and gunships sent after one measly little infiltrator.

After all, there is no kill like overkill.

Whatever this incoming army was, the gunship-trailer things were obviously the biggest threats, so I aimed my sniper and set to work.

One mag's worth later of shots later and a gunship  crashed into the earth. The swarm kept closing, however so I settled on eliminating the gunners instead.

I slammed a fresh mag in and yanked the bolt back, chambering a round. I aimed for the horned gunner on the leading gunship and nailed him between the eyes. A small red banner appeared at the top of my helmets HUD, saying "headshot."

I smiled before I read my ammo levels- one mag left. Did I really use that much ammo before I got here? Well, I'm probabaly not going to make it back to Indar if I was on five rounds.

I pushed my last mag into the gun rammed the bolt back in and pulled the trigger, sending another one of the flyers crashing to the ground with a satisfying splat.

Four rounds.

I shoved my sniper back inside my Lightning, ducked in after it, and reloaded the main gun. 90 shots left in the ammo storage after I was respawned here. I must have used a helluva lot back on Indar but since I wasn't going to make it out alive, I decided I might as well take as many of the enemy down with me. Here goes nothing.

I opened up into the sky, not even bothering to aim due to the fact that aiming with a Lightning was rather pointless. Especially when you were shooting into the sky so I settled on spraying and praying.

I saw several gunships get blown to pieces yet the swarm was going to arrive shortly if the radar on my HUD was any indication.

I slammed the reverse gear on, sending my tank speeding backwards, firing all the way. All of the shots missed.

54 shells left.

I took stock of the situation through the thermal optics as night began to fall.  The gunships had landed, the horned gunners forming into a firing line in front of me. The two MAX units which had both horns and wings were handing out... Was that jewellery? Was this place mad? Handing out jewellery in the middle of a battle? To a group of five of the things that had gathered around them.

Hell, at this point, if it wasn't for running out of ammo, I'd have sworn I'd been stuck on a badly reprogrammed virtual combat simulator.

A mob of winged and normal things were beginning to advance towards me in a semi-circle formation around my Lightning. If they swarmed it, I would be dead for sure. If I moved, that horned gun line no doubt had orders to blow me back to wherever I came from.

The semicircle began to close in around my tank. I couldn't depress the barrel low enough to shoot them now, and there was a chance that I might accidently hit myself in the blast. The town was devastated though, and many of the things were dead or dying. I had done my work well.

They were too close for my sniper, too close for the Viper, the Lightning's main gun.  Maybe if I'd brought a Skyguard, this wouldn't have happened. I drew my Mag-Shot in my left, knife in my right with the one grenade I carried everywhere's ring-pull on my right's pinkie finger so I could throw it at the MAX's.

That's what I settled on doing- killing those MAX's. They seemed important, leaders of this area? Hell, maybe even the faction leader?

I climbed out the Lightning's turret hatch and looked around. The large perimeter around me was still there, the MAX's had finished handing out jewellery and were beginning to approach the perimeter's edge.

Big mistake.

I ripped my dog tags off and flung them to the ground in front of the Lightning as a distraction while I leaped off the Lightning's chassis into the crowd of guards.

I dealt with the first one easily, slamming my knife into the area underneath its horn. I spun, cloaked, confusing them, un cloaked in the same spot, and blew a hole through a normal's eye. One of the winged ones dive bombed me but I slashed straight across its face before rolling out the way.

As I got to my feet, another charged me so I sidestepped and blew its kneecap out. Two of the horned ones tried to shoot their wierd lasers at me so I shot one in the eye and threw my now-useless gun at the other, catching it square in the face as I continued my progress towards the MAXs.

Switching my knife to my left hand, I cloaked and charged.

I vaulted the first guard who tried to impede my charge, rolled under the second before I noticed the nanites were no longer regenerating and neither was I cloaked. I had enough charge left to cloak if I disabled my rebreather and exposed myself to the no-doubt toxic atmosphere that this place had.

A small group had formed up around the MAXs to protect them, I would only get through that group by cloaking.

As I was going to die anyway, I diverted all the suits power to the cloaking systems.

I ran at the group, jumped with all the energy I had left over the circle of guards and landed on the white MAX's back. I noticed it had the mark of a sun on, while the dark blue one had that of the moon.

At least I could say I killed the Sun and Moon, Dusk and Dawn.

I uncloaked, grinned underneath my helmet, and pulled the pin on the grenade.

======================================================

My name is Klaw.

I am finally dead.

I no longer have to experience the horrors of Auraxis.

I took the Sun and Moon down with me, trapping a world in eternal Twilight.

What more can a common soldier ask for than to die with honour?