Air rushed through the open door of the transport as Xaleyp looked down, surveying New Alexandria from above. Being several kilometers in the air, clouds frequently obscured his view of the city. To his left, he saw the mountain Nevermoor Hold—or rather, what remained of it—once stood against. Some ruins were still in the crater, but the hum of energy that emanated from the place was gone, replaced by an odd feeling of forlorn. To his right was the stunningly tall ArcDefense Corporation building, though even the top of that was beneath them.

Ant-like people on the streets below scurried to and from buildings, and cars and other ships zoomed between them. They treated it as if it were any other day, though nothing could be further from the truth.

Xaleyp felt the pressure of his assault rifle against the exosuit covering chest as the wind continued blowing in. Behind him sat nearly a dozen Vanguard Ascendancy soldiers, all equipped with the latest exosuits and weaponry. Some simply bore assault rifles, while others held sniper rifles or rocket launchers depending on their area of expertise. Each was handpicked by Strategos Warwick, who reluctantly agreed to Ardus’ pestering to launch an offensive on Arcadia.

Private Thalen and Private Emyr, two peas in a pod who grew up in the lower sections of Siatia together. Private Helsing, who had flunked out of Officer Candidate School for assaulting other students but otherwise showed good results. Privates Tyrell and Foxwell, a couple who enlisted together after exhausting all other thrills they could find and knew their weapons inside and out. Corporal Beta, a mysterious woman who kept to herself but came highly recommended from any officer she worked under. At her hip, she had a large pistol resembling a stylized magnum emblazoned with red runes. The rest of the squad, Xaleyp hadn’t learned the names of, both out of lack of time and wanting to distance himself in case the mission went sideways.

The ship circled high above the city, waiting for the signal to strike that would be coming any moment. Xaleyp leaned against the doorway, reveling in the quiet—or, at least, as quiet as it could be with the amount of wind rushing through.

The soldiers talked amongst themselves in the otherwise quiet of the transport. Thalen and Emyr engaged in some sort of quiet banter between one another, reminiscing about their childhood. Helsing stood among a group of other soldiers telling jokes that were followed by polite laughter and punctuated by quick bursts of conversations between them.

After the attack on the spaceport, the Siatian Senate voted narrowly against the declaration of war, with the opposition stating that senseless violence never solved anything in the history of mankind. They did, however, agree to blockade the planet, keeping it from sending or receiving any supplies.

Xaleyp vehemently disagreed, speaking at the Senate Building in an attempt to persuade them to change their minds to no avail. Ardus, however, was quick to use a stipulation within the Siatian Concord to pressure Warwick into attacking even without the formal declaration of war.

Their mission was simple: get to ArcDefense where the government of Arcadia was meeting, take out whoever was in power and replace their government with a Siatian-friendly one. The end result was killing two birds with one stone: the Arcadians would be punished for their actions, and they would finally be properly assimilated into the Siatian Federation. Meanwhile, other teams would assault strategic locations throughout the city to cripple any defense put up. The Helios-Two Xaleyp was in arrived several hours before the second, and, at its arrival, they would strike quickly and decisively before the Arcadians could mount a defense.

“Sir, the other squadron just got into position,” the pilot called out.

Xaleyp quickly rushed to the cockpit, taking the stairs up to it two at a time. Through the viewport, he could just barely make out the other dropship on the other side of a wall of clouds. His CAM, however, marked it for him with a small circle and outline visible through the haze.

“Tell them to prepare to fire on my command,” Xaleyp said, placing a hand on each side in the cockpit. “Pattern Alpha Omega Seven Five.”

“Sir, are you sure about that?” The pilot rotated in his seat to look at Xaleyp, one eyebrow arched in curiosity mixed with fear. At the mention of the order, the other soldiers behind him turned and began muttering to each other. “You do realize how many civilians would be caught in that, right?”

“They started this fight.” Xaleyp’s voice was cold and unfeeling, though he felt just the slightest tinge of guilt as he spoke. However, he quickly pushed it away, not letting it cloud his judgment at such a critical moment. “If they didn’t want their people to be killed like this, they would’ve thought about that before they destroyed that transport and killed all those people. Their day of reckoning has come. Pattern Alpha Omega Seven Five, then we go in and take out their leadership.”

“Aye, sir,” the pilot said, though his voice was still hesitant. He put through the command to the other team before turning to Xaleyp and nodding. “They’re ready whenever you are, sir.”

Xaleyp took a deep breath, unsure of exactly how he was supposed to be feeling. He knew that they started this by attacking that unarmed transport on Siatia, that they should have known that he would strike back hard and aggressively. Maybe they got too confident for their own good when Siatia took the high road after the assassinations. Regardless, they should have known better than to drag civilians into this, and, now, there would be no more mercy.

“Fire.”

The single word took much more effort to say than he expected, and he returned to his perch at the open door. Flashes of light appeared from within the clouds like thin streaks of lightning, quickly followed by soft booms as the missiles sped towards the ground. Xaleyp silently counted the seconds, waiting for the moment of contact.

With each impact, explosions tore through the buildings, rupturing them to their cores. Entire city blocks were destroyed in the blink of an eye. Some of the flying vehicles narrowly avoided pillars of fire while others were incinerated in an instant. An inferno tore through the streets, ripping the sidewalks from the ground and igniting the citizens caught within the blaze. Thick plumes of smoke rose into the air as buildings collapsed sideways, crushing smaller ones underneath their immense weight. Some fell straight to their base, the heavy metal and pulverized glass falling to the ground in a raucous cacophony. Like dominoes, more and more structures around the city collapsed, crushing those around and within.

When the devastation seemed to be settling, Xaleyp closed his eyes and basked in the silence left in the wake of the attack. At some point, he may have felt remorse for the people in the city. Now, after what they did to him personally, they were just another statistic, meaningless, like trash to be discarded in the wind.

After several minutes, giving the city a chance for the panic and chaos to truly set in, he returned to the cockpit and placed his hand on the chair once more.

‟Take us in,” he said to the pilot, who obeyed the order at once.

The door of the Helios-Two dropship automatically slid closed as the nose dove, and his CAM showed the other ship following suit. A red light went on in the enclosed area, bathing them in the eerie glow.

As the dust cleared below, Xaleyp could distinctly see the craters left where buildings once stood and the mangled roadways that were left in the wake of the destruction. Metal skeletons jutted into the air where they held up to the attack even when the rest of the structure was ripped away. Fires raged throughout, tearing sweeping paths through the city as the flames licked higher and higher into the sky.

The ArcDefense building stood with large gaping holes in parts of it where missiles impacted, but it otherwise remained looming over the rest of the city. Its enormous, leg-like appendages were broken in several places, yet they endured like impervious buttresses.

With sweeping turns, the two transports grouped together and streaked towards the ArcDefense building just over the top of the tallest buildings still remaining. As they closed in on five kilometers from the structure, the red light turned green and the door slid open. The transports slowed to a crawl, and the pilot turned around abruptly to look at the soldiers.

“This is where I leave you. Good luck, and just make sure you come back alive.”

Some the soldiers nodded, but all stood up and filed to the door. Their exosuits surged with a dim blue glow as they activated, and Xaleyp felt the power surge through his own. It pulsed with energy, rippling up and down each of his limbs.

Tyrell and Foxwell were the first ones there, running as fast as they could in the exosuits before taking a leap out of the door. Helsing followed next, pushing past some of the other soldiers, then Thalen and Emyr disappeared over the edge. Xaleyp took a deep breath and rushed to the door, launching himself out of it before he could convince himself not to.

No matter how much he trusted technology, and no matter how sure he was of his safety, there was some sort of innate, human intuition that screamed at Xaleyp. His body was not, nor was anyone else’s, designed to fall hundreds of meters without being destroyed. The further and faster he fell, the more his heart raced and his breathing increased, until he was almost hyperventilating. Wind rushed past him at worrying speeds, dispersing over the metal and glass of the exosuit.

As he neared the ground, the exosuit automatically uprighted itself and fired a burst of retros at his waist so he hit feet first at a comfortable speed. It did not, however, mean it was an enjoyable landing when his feet slammed into the ground, though the exosuit did absorb nearly all the impact. He staggered at the sudden lack of movement, barely pulling his assault rifle up in time to aim it and look around the area. His hands shook with the adrenaline running through him, causing the barrel to dance in jittering circles.

The street was deserted of people—at least, people that were alive. Bodies littered the ground surrounded by wreckages of cars and other flying vehicles, as well as large pieces of building that were torn free. Their arms and legs were bent at impossible angles, forced into positions as if they were contortionists. Fires crackled in small crevices and across the debris, though the exosuit quickly tuned it out. A thick layer of dust hung in the air, and a sudden feeling of desolation emanated into Xaleyp.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to push away the sights around him. Over and over again, he told himself that they deserved this, that they started this fight, but the argument that these individuals were not responsible for his parents’ deaths kept piercing through his mind. Yet they elected their leaders, and their leaders ordered the attack on the transport; therefore, they were just as responsible as those who committed the actual attack.

Around him, other soldiers slammed into the ground at disconcerting speeds, a brief flash emanating from their waists mere seconds before impact. Xaleyp found it hard to believe that he actually survived the descent after seeing the others land.

As they did so, they began taking up defensive positions, clearing the area to ensure that there was no immediate threat. Once satisfied, they cautiously returned to Xaleyp and formed a loose semicircle around him.

With a deep breath and shaking his legs awake to get some feeling in them, he walked towards the center of the group.

“As you know, the plan is rather straightforward,” he started, looking over each of them. Their exosuit helmets gleamed brightly, reflecting the desolate landscape in the visors. “We march to ArcDefense, putting down any pockets of resistance we find on the way. Once there, we capture whoever is in charge and extradite them to Siatia to stand trial.”

“Sir,” Corporal Beta said, moving forward, “hasn’t our intelligence indicated that Castellian Nevermoor has been sworn in as Governor after Tober was executed?”

Xaleyp looked at her curiously, her voice sounding vaguely familiar, as he tried to study her through the reflective material. Though he could not see her eyes, he was sure that she was staring back at him with the same intensity. However, it was impossible to place it, not amid all of the other thoughts swirling through his mind. He shook his head to clear it before returning his attention to the group at large.

“I’ve heard rumors indicating such, but nothing definitive, so it’s important that we don’t try to base our actions on it. We’ll be splitting up into pairs. Stay sharp, and watch each others back so we can all make it out of here alive.”

A mutter of affirmation rang out as the Siatians sorted themselves and formed a loose group marching down the street. The metal joints creaked with each movement, and, combined with the rhythmic stamping of their feet, sounded as if an army of robots was advancing on New Alexandria.

Xaleyp hung back, bringing up the rear and keeping his head on a swivel. Somewhere in the distance, sirens blared and echoed throughout the city. Some screams pierced the air, picked up by the enhanced microphones of the exosuits. To his right, part of a partially demolished building crumbled under its own weight, sending a cascade of metal and dust to the ground with a unsettling crunch.

After several minutes of relative silence, Beta hung back and waited for him to catch up to her. She moved in step with him, walking at the same pace, without saying anything for a few seconds. Then, she turned to him and spoke.

“Why are we doing this?” Her voice was quiet, startling Xaleyp and sending a chill down his back. She swept an arm through the area, indicating the destruction. “What did they do to possibly deserve all of this death and pain?”

“They ordered an act of terrorism on a Siatian transport vessel carrying hundreds of people, destroying it and killing everyone on board.” Even saying the words was difficult for Xaleyp, and he had to push back the tears that formed at the corners of his eyes. “Two of those people on board were my parents.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and it sounded as if she meant it. Another silence fell between them before she broke it a minute later. “I just have one question for you then, Levion.”

She stopped moving, turning to him and prompting him to follow suit. Her face, invisible behind the reflective glass, was impossible to read.

“How does doing all of this, killing all these people, wreaking so much havoc on a single city, make us any better than them? How do we honor the lives of those lost by causing more destruction that only perpetuates that endless cycle of violence that we inevitably find ourselves in? What do you think your parents would have said if they were alive?”

Xaleyp thought for several seconds before saying anything. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he allowed anger to cloud his judgment, but they deserved every ounce of retaliation they got. They launched an attack on what was supposed to be the police force of the galaxy. If he had reacted with any less intensity then he showed here, the entire Siatian Concord would have been rendered useless.

Even with the thought, Xaleyp found himself doing a double-take. Just months ago, he told himself the entire concept of the Concord was pointless and aggressive. Now, he was defending it as if it were the only source of pureness and goodness in the galaxy? And what exactly would his parents say about what he was doing?

Finally, he looked her in the eyes as the other Vanguard Ascendancy soldiers kept walking several dozen meters away.

“You said it yourself, Corporal. The cycle of violence is inevitable, so isn’t it better that we get ahead of the cycle and remain proactive instead of having to be reactive? Besides, even if my parents wouldn’t want me to do this, I’m sure as hell going to fight for them and the families that were destroyed.”

Without another word and without waiting for her to comment, he pushed forward, walking faster to catch up with the other soldiers. He stepped his way through the rubble and wreckage around him as she continued moving to bring up the rear.