Cutting off, the steam quickly dissipated. Nothing remained of our common enemy. A sudden explosion took out the top of the target building. The location at the other end of the projected laser track. Not wanting to give them the chance to regroup, we all took off running at once.

  Within a dozen seconds, we were at the wall. Kneeling down, I cupped my hand for the person behind me. He stepped in and jumped as I threw him up. Twenty feet up, he casually vaulted over the top. The last thing I saw him do was touch his glove back on the ledge. His suit dropped a line down to me. Grabbing on, I quickly climbed up. As soon as I crawled over the edge, another person was grabbing the line and climbing up.

  All the enemies that had been shooting from this ledge were lying on the ground. Ripples spreading through the pools of blood as the rain fell faster. Entering the dimly lit hall, my AI activated my suit's low-light vision. The faint outlines of everything sharpened as everything took on a green hue.

  Just ahead, Grendel was standing next to the door into the next room. He grabbed the handle as I prepared to enter. As soon as he opened it, I burst in. My AI scanning and categorizing everything and everyone. The room had likely been a cafeteria before the separatist movement. It looked like it was a mix between a bunk room, mess, and a storage room.

  Every one of the people were already on a clear section of the floor, hands behind their head. The only exception was the one guy standing in the middle. His hands raised over his head. His chest laid bare to us.

  “We surrender.” He cried out.

  I kept my gun trained on him from my position just inside the room. People flowing in around me. Some ran over to check and cuff everyone, while others passed through to continue through the rest of the facility. Finally, the room was cleared. Moving back down the hallway, I went back to the balcony to look out over the city.

  It was destroyed. Skinned and gutted. War ravaged. The sight saddened me. I had seen images of what the city had been before. The colonists had managed to harvest their first full crop. Something that they had been working for years on to acclimatize to the weird weather it would experience.

  A giant party was held when the first storm had done little damage to the crop. The storm had thrown sharp ice and razor-thin stone at it, and the crop survived. That progress was now gone. Blown up with the rest of the colony. The last of the colonists were inside the building, having joined the separatists for one reason or another.

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  Which would have been fine with the Sol system. The military couldn’t police the galaxy after all. In fact, the government had welcomed the colony's independence. Until they started to encroach on other systems and threaten them for resources. Once that had happened, it was only a matter of time until the Sol military crashed the party.

  “All clear. Five hundred ninety-two prisoners. Sixty-three of which are under sixteen,” came someone’s voice over the fleet radio. No reply came. “I repeat, all clear. Five hundred ninety-two prisoners. Sixty-three children.”

  After a minute of harsh silence, a hard to make out voice came over the radio. Thankfully my AI was able to decipher it and displayed the text for me. “Understood. Unknown enemy fleet retreating. Breaking off pursuit. Prepare for pickup.”

  “Team thirteen, you are on guard duty. The rest of you, rest up, eat, enjoy the fresh air. Who knows where our next assignment will take us?” Called the person who had called up to the fleet. It was not the ground commander; his voice was deeper, and he would never talk so flippantly. But that meant that the ground commander was dead or nearly so.

  Jumping down to the ground, I clutched my weapon. My suit absorbed most of the force as I landed. Carefully, I made my way down the debris strewn road to where the two figures had stood. All that I found was a bored hole. The rim was filled with rocks melted and pooling where the laser had only heated them up. Looking into the hole, I found nothing but melted rocks and glassy sand.

  Water was already flowing down into the hole in rivulets as the rain increased. Times like this made me happy that the military had added hydrophobic properties to the visor. Not seeing any signs of the two, I walked to where I made my way back to the building. Some soldiers had their helmets off and were eating or sleeping.

  Others were digging through the debris. Likely as not, looking for their fallen brothers and sisters. I turned and walked down the road my team had fought down. Going directly for the spot where I had blown one of the enemies.

  Honestly, I didn’t expect to find anything. What I found caused my mind to stutter. A girl laid in the ground with no signs of a suit or weapon. My eyes wandered over her partially exposed body. She was stunning. If I wasn’t already in a relationship, I would have chased after her. Her skin tanned to a near-golden hue that complimented the chestnut color of her hair.

  It wasn’t until I saw some of her, more unique, features that I realized something was wrong. On top of her head stood a pair of long, pointed ears. Splayed behind here were four tails. Not knowing what the hell I was looking at; I did what anyone would do.

  I yelled for answers from my AI, “What the fuck is that?”