A Soldier For All Seasons Ch. 02

She stepped across, hopping from plank to plank needlessly. "There's a little camp for hikers at the bottom of this river, it should have an old radio we could use." She said, inordinately happy.

"Let's not get ahead of-" Ana's cry cut him off, a jungle-jeep pulling up with a squeal to block the end of the bridge. A stolen military jeep, with one bug in the driver seat and the other manning the minigun in the jeep bed. Without even looking, Nate knew that bug troops would be emerging from the trees behind him. A trap. The bugs knew they'd come this way - it was the only exit.

Nate didn't waver. He pulled his only inversion grenade and used his teeth to pull the pin. Then, he threw it with all his might, right at the jeep.

It landed with a thunk, and for a second it did nothing.

"Cheap shit—"

The jeep lit up in a blue semi-circle, a bubble around it. Inside the bubble, gravity inverted, yanking the jeep up sharply. The driver panicked, trying to drive out of it, only managing to somehow flip the jeep in midair, a comical farce in the middle of a firezone. Behind Nate, the bugs hesitated, unwilling to kill the Princess, scared to fire in case they hit their own soldiers.

The grenade failed. The bubble cut off with a metallic thrum. The gunner fell off the minigun, only managing to cry in fear, right before the jeep crushed him with a sick squelch. Nate was already moving, grabbing Ana's hand in his hand, the other pulling his sidearm. Three shots until he found the trapped driver's head, through the windshield. The windscreen wipers would struggle to clean that much blood.

"Get behind the jeep!" Nate yelled, pulling out the jeep door to provide a little cover against the bugs across the bridge, coming to their senses.

"What are you going to do?" Ana cried out.

Nate didn't answer, trying to pull off the minigun from its stand on the jeep. It was mounted, welded on, but time hadn't been kind to it, the rusted nuts and bolts rattling as he yanked.

*Nate, it's not moving enough.*

"Give me more juice!" Nate yelled incoherently, straining with all his strength, his veins bulging. The jeep's wingmirror blasted over his head.

*Increasing the amount of blood to your biceps, reducing all non-core functionality.*

"Aaah!" Nate growled, half-caveman, feeling it give.

Snap!

The minigun broke clean off, and Nate heaved it up. A six-barrel rotating Phalanx minigun, firing 8mm hardened bullets, 5000 every minute. He'd learned to use it in post-basic training, under a far too eager drill sergeant. Sergeant Power, a madman in a five foot body.

At the time, he could barely hold the thing. Now, it was like holding a baby. One hand on the holding ring, the other on the lawn-mower style red button. The death button, his Sergeant called it.

*Isabelle, deafen my hearing.*

Unbidden, his face split into a grin. The minigun whined, rotating slowly, and then rapidly. Nate stepped out.

Twenty bugs, coming down the bridge. The minigun sang a crunching song of metal death as it rained down bullets, the bugs splintering, limbs flying, bones crunching, blood spurting. One of them lost its legs and collapsed face first onto its fellow soldier, whose face held an expression of panic before his head was blown clean up.

Splinters from the bridge chipped up, a woodchipper grinding up the bugs, and Nate smiled grimly as he mowed down the rope bridge. Behind the bridge, holospeeders carrying more troops, two to a speeder. Nate kept firing until the speeders blew in a huge crash of orange and black, their flames joining the smoke already present in the sky.

"Just like in the movies." Nate laughed.

*And you were worried about me being a psychopath.* Isabelle prodded.

The minigun belt ran dry. The minigun whined, a child bereft of its candy. Nate whined with it.

Across the bridgeless canyon, pre speeders skidded onto the scene, accidentally sweeping their fallen into the rushing river below with their hover technology. Above, hoverships descended slowly, their fiery-blue jets tilting at precise angles to avoid the mass of trees.

They'd run out of time. They'd run out of moves.

Nate dropped his minigun and met Ana behind the jeep, who was watching him with wide eyes.

"Any ideas, beautiful?"

She shook her head mutely.

"Isabelle?"

"Who is Isabelle?" Ana said, in confusion.

*There's two moves, and one is surrender. You know the other.*

"Voice in my head, but don't worry," Nate snorted, not sure if he was closer to laughter or tears. "I'm not mad." He peered over the side, at the sharp craggy rocks splitting through the white rushing rapids. Already, the dead bugs had disappeared, to drown and be splintered into even more insect-limbs by the river rocks.

"Thank you, Nate." Ana said, peering over his shoulder to watch the approaching bugs. They'd launched a rope-gun to swing across the canyon, while the hovership was close enough to start dropping off soldiers. "You gave me hope. You came when nobody else did. You are a hero, no matter what you say."

"We can still make it." Nate decided, voice picking up a touch of insanity. "Jump into the river."

"Are you crazy? We'll be dashed against the rocks."

"Not if we stay wrapped up together and don't let go. Use my body to hit the rocks and try and float on me like a raft." Nate ordered, his vision swimming.

*Nate...*

"Nate—" Ana started, eyes welling up.

"I'm dead anyway, don't you see?" He pulled her to the side of the cliff, holding her hand in his. Her hand was so soft.

She pushed him back violently, so hard he was pushed back several steps. "I'm not going to let you die, Nate!" She shouted.

Nate's anger pricked up, but time slowed down. On her right breast, jerking from left to right, a red dot. A red laser! A sniper shot. They weren't going to risk letting her get away.

"No!" Nate dived forward. A gunshot. His shoulder exploded in sheer agony, copper in his mouth. He took Ana with him over the cliff, her mouth agape. Everything was white as their heads collided. Her semi-sheer bra, white but staining red. The white rushing water, bubbling and so fast it would speed them up away in seconds. The whites of her eyes, wide and shocked.

Ana.

She was so beautiful. Those pointed ears poking cutely through that light golden hair, those island-water blue eyes. Those lips were so perfectly pouted, so red he could spend hours kissing them to make them swollen, make her glorious innocence become his debauched possession. As he fell into the abyss, sure he was meeting his death, wrapping himself as tightly around Ana as he could, he smiled and had one last thought.

He'd have liked to have kissed her, just once.