The sudden roar of a truck makes you tense up, but the moment passes and you relax again, leaning back in your chair and taking a sip of your drink. You glance over at the truck in the street below—just a routine delivery vehicle pulling away into the shadows between the buildings. Up on the rooftop patio, you close your eyes, enjoying the warmth of Sol's rays against your face. It's good to be back on Earth. The memories of war don't fade that easily, though.
It's been four months since the battle in Free Lhasa. Most of the time since, you've been too busy to really think about it, but you know in your heart that the battle that day really was the turning point. For you, and perhaps for the entire human race.
The ferocity of the combined colonial rebel forces really came to light that day, and your entire regiment was decimated over three days of hard fighting. In the chaos, you managed to link up with the remains of your platoon, just as Halliday was doing a final sweep for survivors.
You and Amori were the last of the Hoplites off the surface. With so many weakened and broken bodies left behind, the biggest risk immediately after the battle was disease.
The outbreak of MacMillan's Disease was entrenched, and ultimately it did more harm than any force of troopers. You wish that the local people had been more open to the vaccine. It would have saved a lot of innocent lives.
The surviving regiment had barely two weeks to recover before reinforcements arrived, and suddenly you were part of the old guard. Amori was promoted to squad leader and you were assigned a new bodyguard, who got himself shot on the first mission. You've actually lost count of how many bodyguards you went through, but to be honest, you lost too many troopers before you could even learn their names. The fighting in those early weeks was horrific.
But it was nothing that you hadn't already seen, and as the replacement lieutenants froze in battle, your platoon became the trusted center of the line. Unshakable in defense, unstoppable on the attack. When Commander Celi made Karim first lieutenant, she field promoted you to lieutenant and told all the older officers that you were worth listening to. If that didn't convince them, your medal for valor certainly did.
The rebels fought ferociously. Good thing Major Zhang remained locked up in your brig. You shudder to think how much harder the fighting would have been had he been loose. Despite what the recruiting movies showed, with troopers safely tucked away in drop ships, hover tanks or strike fighters, a lot of the fighting was in the dirt, face-to-face with the enemy.
But you know that the rebel forces respected the Hoplites. As the conflict dragged on, entire rebel positions would be abandoned when they got word that the Hoplites were advancing, and your troop made headway when other troops got bogged down in ditch-to-ditch or room-to-room warfare.
You take a sip of your drink, shaking off the familiar anger when you think about the rebels. It's hard not to hate your enemy, but you're trying your best to be magnanimous.
Not that you expect any reciprocation from the Cerberans. Your forces tore through the landscape, the rules of war going out the window as you fought just to survive. The current occupying forces no doubt have their hands full, and you don't envy them.
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