Fall of Gaia

Rasha felt a sharp burning sting in her left shoulder, followed by a sudden feeling of weightlessness. As the imperial trooper spun through the air, she caught a glimpse of what was left of her shoulder pad flying in the opposite direction. She landed back first on the hard tattered concrete with a loud crack. The sudden jolt was strong enough split her helmet from the some to her visor and send her head spinning. For a long, disorienting moment, all Rasha could see were spots as the world buzzed around her. She tried to move, but she was so dizzy from the fall her body didn't know up from down. For all she knew, she was still falling. Rasha felt disjointed from reality, mindlessly waving her arm through a void of nauseating colors before finally landing on something solid, though she was too numb to find out what it was. Afterward, the object slid away from her, or she slid away from it. She couldn't tell.

Eventually, she gave up trying to find out where she was in reality and rolled onto her back, rested her head against the cracked pavement, and hoped someone friendly would eventually find her before she passed out. Rasha's vision slowly started to return though all she could see was the static of her damaged HUD. The only indication she had of where she was, was the muffled sound of energy weapons zipping overhead and an eerie silence. There was no shouting, no barking of orders, no call to retreat or hold your ground. All she could hear was only gunfire. Rasha knew it was never a good sign when you could only hear gunfire on a battle filed. It meant that you were alone.

After a long, dizzying moment, Rasha could feel pins and needles in her right arm, followed shortly by a sharp, burning sting on her left shoulder. She gritted her teeth and let out a strained groan, holding back a scream of pure pain as her wound made itself known. Rasha took her right hand and placed it on the side of her helmet in search of helms controls. She flicked off her HUD as it was bussing around in so many different directions that it made her physically ill. Though once the HUD was gone, all she could see was cracked glass. Reluctantly she reached for her chin strap and unclipped it. She then used one hand to push her helm off of her head. She was a little surprised when it started moving in two different directions.

The bangs of her short golden hair fell into her dark blue eyes and brushed against her pail face as her helm fell off her brow like a cracked egg. She took a moment to breathe, let her eyes adjust to the light, then raked her ragged locks from her eyes.

The sky was a mix of a diluted yellow and blood red, a result of all the soot and ash filling the air. Beyond the pillars of smoke and strands of black clouds, she could see the waged shape silhouettes of Tyrusien Warships and the flaming wreckage of what was once the imperial armada.

Rasha looked down at where she was shot. She could see a hole in her catsuit where her shoulder pad used to be, giving her a clear view of her bare, burnt skin. It wasn't as bad as it felt, thankfully. She could still open and close her fist, though rolling her arm hurt like hell. She noticed her chest armor had taken a beating as well. There was a large gash on her left breastplate and a few small holes in her catsuit, showing off a few small hints of her fair bust. She must have been shot in the chest, and the armor sent the bolt into her shoulder. "Better my shoulder than my heart," she groaned before looking around for her rifle.

"Arimir!" she called out as she tried to shift herself into a sitting position. "Arimir, what the fuck is our status!"

She reached for her left to try to grab the object she had struck earlier, believing that it was something solid like an upturned piece of concrete, the wreckage of a hover car, something she could use to brace herself. Eventually, she found something, but it wasn't metal or concrete. Rasha's face turned pale as she felt something warm and damp seeping into her glove.

She looked up and let out a sharp gasp at the sight of a dead man's mangled face looking back at her. His body was dangling off the side of a crater wall, his arms spread wide like an eagle in flight, and his armor was littered with blood-soaked holes.

Having been brought fully to her senses, the woman turned her trembling eyes to her surroundings. Rasha had fallen into a smoking crater about half a man deep. The fact that she landed in said crater was likely why she was still alive. Sadly, the same couldn't be said for the rest of her squad, who were now lying dead around her. The man dangling upside down before her was her second in command, Arimir, a handsome man who, like her, had lost his family at the start of the war. They even shared a bed together on a few occasions, having some kinship from loosening their spouses and children.

Rasha felt tears forming in her eye as she lightly brushed her fingers over the chest plate of yet another fallen lover. She hadn't allowed herself to cry since her husband and son were killed in this senseless war. She didn't even have a body to bury after the Tyrusiens hammered their home from orbit. At least now she had the small comfort of knowing she would die alongside Arimir.

Her brief period of mourning was interrupted by the sound of armored boots clopping atop the war-torn streets. Peering over the lip of her crater, she saw at least seven men dressed in black and red armor. They wore dark trench coats and face masks with sharp-bladed beaks. Between the two tails of their trench coats was a long bushy tail with raccoon stripes that would have almost looked cute if it wasn't for the large quills poking out from under the fur. Many of them were wielding large rifles tipped with jagged blades. Others carried heavier weapons with multiple spinning barrels and large belts of armor-piercing rounds. As they spoke in their alien language, it sounded less like speech and more like barking.

Rasha sank beneath the lip of the crater when she realized that they were headed her way, either drawn to the scent of fresh meat or to take advantage of the weakened battle line. She had been ordered to hold the river crossing until reinforcements arrived, though judging from the falling debris, it didn't look like reinforcements would be coming anytime soon.

She looked down and found a loaded rifle sitting next to her thigh. She quickly snatched the rifle from the ground, rested the barrel on the crater's edge, and looked down the cracked sight. The Tyrusiens didn't seem to notice her. Their commander, a Tyrusien dressed in a black trench coat with red trimmings, looked like he was arguing with one of his subordinates. He was speaking in his native language, so she couldn't tell what they were barking about. Possibly over who got first dibs on the meat, or more likely, he was trying to keep his troops from stopping for a quick snack.

As Rasha aimed her rifle at the commander's head, she tried to fight off the urge to gag. The smell of burnt flesh was so overwhelming it made her eyes water and her stomach churn. The smell was likely the reason why the Tyrusiens were heading for her. It must have been no different from fried bacon to their sensitive noses.

She lined her crosshairs with the officer's goggles, then changed the setting of her rifle from automatic to single shot. Rasha wasn't sure how many rounds she had left or if she would have enough time to reload, so she needed to ensure every round hit its mark. First, the officer to disorient the grunts, then the anti-infantry guns as they cut through her cover like it was made of warm ice cream. With any luck, this was just a small squad and not the front line, though when it came to Tyrusiens, a small squad could range from a few dozen to a few thousand. Tyrusiens always traveled in large numbers, especially when they were angry, and right now, they were very angry.

Gently and slowly, she pulled the trigger until a bright red bolt shot out of the barrel of her rifle and into the officer's head. The Tyrusiens were quick to react, ignoring the loss of their commander and diving for cover. Rasha tried to keep track of the Tyrusiens with heavy weapons. The moment the first one poked his head out, she fired, striking him in the neck. She then quickly aimed for the second and pulled the trigger, only to hear the sickening clunk of her gun jamming. She shouted a quick curse, then roiled back into cover just seconds before the Tyrusiens opened fire.

"God damn it, Arimir!" she growled as she fell to her side, "I told you to clean your fucking gun! I hope whatever god you found yourself in front of is giving you one hell of an ass-chewing!"

Rasha jumped at the sight of Tyrusien armor piercing round flying out of the concrete above her, lowering her ceiling. The crater wasn't wide enough for her to mauver and find a new vantage point; even if it were, they would gun her down easily the moment she poked her head out. Rasha grabbed her sidearm, pressed herself onto her back as far as she could go, and aimed it for the lip of the crater. If she was going to go down, she was going to take her killer's balls with her.

As she waited in the crater, praying to Thor that he would deliver her to her family, she was startled to see another stream of blaster fire flying in the opposite direction. A strong breeze and a cloud of dust striking her cheek drew her attention toward the sky. Above, she saw the outline of an eagle-shaped dropship landing on the far side of the creator. "Amazons?"

A few moments later, the anti-infantry rounds stalled, allowing Rasha to poke her head back out of the crater and open fire on anything with more hair than her. Her shots were soon followed by the red laser fire of Accorain lance weapons and the sounds of jet packs igniting. An amazon appeared to her left, followed by another to her right. Like Rasha, they were dressed in black form-fitting catsuits with plated armor strapped to their toned bodies. Their armor made them look more like accent Spartans than modern warriors, with their T-shaped visors and gold plating. They deployed a pair of large round energy shields and knocked their gun barrels through a small slot in the shielding.

As they opened fire on the Tyrusiens, one of the amazons turned to Rasha and shouted, "Get to the raptor! We counted over fifty thousand of those things from the air!"

"What about my squad!" Rasha shouted over the gunfire.

"They died with honor, so you could fight with honor! Now go!"

Rasha didn't argue any further. The last thing she needed on her conscience was to get a squad of amazons killed because she was too stubborn to leave her men. She quickly dismounted from her position and ran for the raptor. The moment she saw a pair of gauntlet-covered hands reaching for her, she jumped, grabbing one in each arm. As she was pulled into the Accorain ship, she heard the sound of the other two amazons activating their rockets and jumping back onto the dropship. Once she was abroad, the amazons took off.

Just before they closed the blast doors, Rasha looked back down onto the battlefield and was shocked to see just how dire her situation was. She was only one woman holding off what looked like a sea of ants with a broken rifle and a side arm. If the Accorans hadn't come, nothing wouldn't have been left of her to save.