January 12 7 AE (military calendar)January 12 2029 AC (global calendar)Major General Tanya Rex

  As I walk to the designated hanger to meet my men I spot several already there and in our new armor. I’m ever satisfied with Misriah’s work. I spot Rabbit who simir to how I forgot Griffin's st name because no one uses it I legitimately forgot Rabbit's actual name. Not that he seems to care.

  Right now he’s asleep in his armor lying on a crate. Also in the hanger is our ride and our gear. I find the crate with my armor with its few tweaks and paint job and set my coffee down. I then get to work putting it on again happy with the work done.

  The helmet is different from everyone else’s as I asked them to make it look simir to my old one with the repcement visor. So it has two rge camera eyes and a bullseye painted on the face. I giggle slightly at that. I only put it on long enough to run a check on everything then it’s off again repced by my coffee.

  Zombie Bate arrives next and quickly dawn their armor. Two have weapons they brought clearly preferring them to whatever else. I also have my rifle but it’s partially due to nothing comparing than preferring it.

  While we wait Frank comes over. “Looks like one of them is punctual at least” I shrug “I’m surprised you all are here this early. How’s the gut” I pat it “Along with all the other crap they put in us they had to put in a mesh between the muscles and organs but I feel great”

  I smile “Only a headshot right” he ughs “That’s right though even that won’t stop our fearless leader” I ugh with him “What’s that make me then” he strokes his chin as if in deep thought “Some kind of eldritch monster probably” I punch his shoulder “doesn’t have a ring to it keep working”

  At that moment Griffin Barbosa Wraith and Jed amble in. Barbosa points at Rabbit “told you he was here” Wraith kicks Rabbit who falls off his crate with a curse. I call over to him “How’s the new legs” he gives me a thumbs up. While Archangel gets ready I pull Frank and his to help me check our cargo.

  Rations, oxygen, ammo, a few spare parts, and a few other things. We’re about ready to go and Bliss enters carrying something. We all snap off a salute. She returns it and I walk over. “Morning Tanya. Why don’t you pull everyone over so they can hear the briefing too”

  I nod and wave everyone over. Rabbit's new gate looks a little funky. “Alright, we’ve been detecting activity on Luna for a while now. I want you all to do some good old-fashioned recon and mark anything important. You’ll be up there a while so I hope you can create a complete map of the exterior of whatever is there. Once done leave them this”

  She pats the device she's holding. “Do not get spotted because you're on your own. No radio contact back to earth as that will alert them. Now take a few deep breaths they are the st you’ll have for a while”

  We all load into the drop ship with our gear and the present. The pilot calls back “Fancy seeing you again Griffin. Hold on tight everyone we have to go through a storm to hide our accent”

  We lift off and the second we clear the tube we are buffeted by high winds and it feels like we’re about to be shaken apart. On the way up Griffin sends me a message asking if I broke my neck yesterday. I send one back saying ‘Uh yeah’

  He replies ‘whoops’ I guess he heard, not surprising, and was a little worried. His next message confirms this ‘You good?’ I send back ‘tip top’ and that seems to satisfy him. A few minutes ter the shaking stops.

  I click my boots and magnetize them. They connect to the floor and I get up and walk to the cockpit. The view is nearly breathtaking as I stare out at an endless sea of bck with pinpricks of light. “General we’re going to coast if you want me to flip it to look at Earth”

  I think for a moment then shrug “Sure let’s see how bad you fucked it up” My stomach lurches as we flip around and I see a rapidly dwindling earth. Now instead of blues and greens, it’s a matte brown and gray. It’s almost beautiful in its own way.

  A thought comes to mind though “Hey Jed how do you think America is doing with all the dust” About a minute ter he responds “It sucks for whoever is left there. I can almost guarantee the water is contaminated and the only food is from the bug farms” everyone turns and looks at him.

  “What didn’t OMI know that was the main food source” he asks. Frank is the first to say it “They eat fucking bugs” Jed nods. Barbosa bursts out ughing and struggles to get his next words out “Even when we lived in mud huts we didn’t eat bugs”

  We all join in ughing. The pilot foehammer cuts in “I bet we could win an invasion by handing out stakes, not a single shot fired” My eyes widen and I file that idea away for ter. A few minutes of ughing ter the drop ship rolls back around and we are flying to the moon.

  Griffin asks a question out loud for all to hear “Willy said his guys are having to go through training on a new vehicle any insight Tanya” I tap my lower helmet pretending to be in thought before I answer “It’s a Mech”

  Everyone leans forward. It’s obvious why who doesn’t love a Mech they are badass. “They were made by Bowie Industries. They are pretty cool unfortunately we’ll only have six for now” a few guys grumble.

  Foehammer calls back “We have a while until we’re near the moon I'd try to sleep while you can” Frank yells back “We just woke up jackass”

  We end up just bantering for a few hours until we can force some sleep. I wait for them all to doze off before I close my eyes.

  As expected I’m back at the pergo. Not having anything in mind I end up just chatting with Casper for who knows how long. Next thing I know I’m shaken awake.

  “We’re coming in for a nding. Nice and slow to hide. I’m parking it in a crater as well” We check our gear and get ready for a fast dismount just in case. While from the outside the entire battalion is a mess and looks completely undignified there is a reason we’re the best.

  I barely notice the nding gear touch down and it takes the ramp dropping to get us on our feet. We stream out and clear the crater. “Wraith, twenty crest the rim and take a peek” I order both squad's marksmen. The rest of us y out our base camp.

  A while ter and we are all down inside the crater drinking some breakfast. We could close up the drop ship to pop our buckets but then we’re vulnerable. “Alright once we’re done taking a break I’m going to take the zombies out of the crater and find that facility the rest of you keep your eyes peeled here”

  Everyone nods and we slowly climb out of the crater. The marksmen said they didn’t see anything but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything now. Frank angles a probe over the rim and after a few seconds of looking gives the clear.

  Now begins our boring march. Frank decides he doesn’t like the silence “Hey general I have an idea of what the parting gift is but what’s your take” Without hesitation I reply “It’s a Fusion warhead” One of the others groans “damnit guess you win man”

  The other guy, who has a zombie with dice in its sockets emblem, I believe his nickname/callsign is Bckjack responds “I’ll give you a chance to win it back, what’s inside the facility” The first guy, Prince fires back “deal”

  I privately ask Frank “Why’s he named Prince” Frank shrugs “It’s kind of a mean joke honestly, his older brother is a pilot with the callsign monarch” his emblem is a zombie with a crown.

  We talk some more as we continue our careful walk. An hour or two ter we duck behind whatever cover we can find. We spotted lights in the distance so without revealing ourselves we take a look.

  It looks heavily guarded with weapon empcements and lights. Caster the st zombie and the one who lost his arm points out what looks to be an infrared ser fence. It’s highly distorted from the ambient radiation but it’s definitely there.

  That will make a close look difficult but not impossible in theory we can just go over. For about half an hour we watch and mark interesting stuff like robotic patrols.

  It’s almost reassuring to see they actually are guarding the pce instead of just assuming no one will find it on Luna. Though it does make our job harder. I call time and we sneak back to our hole not before we drop a remote camera though.

  As we neared the crater Griffin added me to his com channel and I hear foehammer saying “Hope you guys can keep a secret but I have some beer in squeeze pouches” I message Griffin to save us some. Should we be drinking on a mission? On the moon?

  Probably not but at the same time, we’re going to be here a while and we’re on the moon. We slide down the crater and we’re tossed some pouches. I superimpose a campfire on the ground and we sit around it.

  We go over our findings and pn for the next few days. After a while conversation drifts from the mission to what a bunch of friends camping would talk about. Such as how good the shower is going to be once we get back.

  One topic was interesting though. Barbosa kind of out of the blue says “Hey Jed did you know we have a slightly different biology from Griffin and them”

  Em we all kind of just look at him so he continues to expin “You ever notice how they eat more than us like way more, Griffin eats way more than me and I’m bigger than him” Griffin sps his shoulder saying “Are you calling me fat”

  We all get a chuckle and Barbosa continues “It was broken down when I was going through supplementary training, we have one set of canine teeth they have two” I run my tongue over them and while he’s right I wonder why I’ve never noticed the difference.

  “Their bones on average are slightly denser and there are the obvious differences like a wider range of hair and eye color then there is an interesting difference” he pauses for effect “Apparently every Elysium-born person has the gene for psychopathy and it’s a dominant gene”

  We all look at each other and Jed interrupts Barbosas lecture “Wait how’s that possible they all seem fine” he holds up a finger “It’s pronounced just enough to prevent PTSD and lessen guilt for killing something, plus a few other bits but”

  I interrupt now “Basically just enough to be beneficial and not a detriment” he nods and then hunches over “Now here’s my theory, it’s intentional, you don’t get several generations all with it without someone being full-blown psychopath”

  Griffin looks at me then back to Barbosa and says completely deadpan “But our good general is” I snicker, while I don’t think he’s right… I also never thought about it. That seems to defte him a little “I uh hmm… she’s high functioning it’s not the same”

  We all ugh at his excuse. Jed cuts in “Speaking of our good general enlighten us about your enigmatic self” I burst out ughing “What do you become a thesaurus when you drink” he shrugs “Fine ask away but this doesn’t mean I’ll answer” Everyone leans forward. other than Griffin they all know the minimum amount about me.

  I guess I am a little mysterious I am the youngest general and have been given free reign from the start. Jed asks “Your parents, they must be a high rank and proud of your achievements”

  I chuckle a little “The exact opposite actually they disowned me when I went into basic they aren’t even citizens I almost didn’t make it through basic either”

  Barbosa only half sarcastically says “Break too many other cadets” I shake my head “Failing to meet requirements” Frank bursts out “Bull fucking shit you're telling me the fucking T-Rex that rushed a trench line while covered in napalm almost failed basic training”

  Everyone looks at me expectantly. I shrug. Griffin adds “I did find it weird you went from bottom of the css to the top in like a week” Zombie Bate and Jed and Barbosa look at us “The original angle squad plus a few others were in my css”

  I continue “Once we graduated I was given a ptoon and we performed well so it expanded to a battalion shortly before beachhead”

  Prince asks “What changed” Again I shrug and respond “I found God” Griffin tilts his head “I thought you found them when you got shot” I shake my head “No I found them in basic I met them when I was shot, we had coffee and had a nice chat”

  Frank nearly shouts “Now that needs expining” I give them a brief expnation but that just seems to lead to more questions. Frank holds up a hand “Wait so heaven and hell, real or not”

  I think for a moment to recall what Nyx said and then formute it into something expinable. “Both are real and not real. They created a paradise for us when we die but that is solely their doing. Hell on the other hand is our creation, it’s the real world so it’s as bad as we make it or we can create a second heaven”

  Griffin quietly asks “Are there requirements to get into heaven” I shake my head “I don’t think so as far as I know” he slightly nods his head. Jed jovially says “Huh well that’s a relief” I nod and Wraith speaks up finally “It would be cruel to have us fight for them only for them to condemn us for it”

  We all nod and Jed speaks again “I’ve seen it too much back in America” I sp Griffin on his back “You know what having God in your corner mean’s right” he brightens back up… he’s been a little off since Brick I wonder if he’s actually trying to find God.

  After a moment he answers me “Elysium will win” We wrap up this roller coaster of a conversation and settle into a routine for the next few days.

  Scouting and setting up cameras and sensors. Eating and resting. Long-range patrols, basically scouting a few areas nearby to see if there are secondary facilities.

  Right now I’m prone looking at what looks to be a shipyard. This isn’t good. The fleet is only crewed by a flight crew to bring it back. The pn is to meet up with them in an earth-trailing orbit but if they are attacked then we are set back by months.

  As I gaze upon the facility I get a message on my visor. Somehow it feels ancient.

  -incoming directive-

  -infiltrate and destroy offending facility-

  -collect all data-

  -legion will assist-