A Swift Passing

[Dirty Old Harry]

As he stood there, slowly lifting a metal flask to his lips from his chest, he looked onward to notice something in the darkness that shone ever so slightly. His distrust for snipers had brought the idea that it could be an enemy rifle staring back at him from the darkness of the jungle, he sipped a warm black liquid from his flask without averting his gaze from the small light, smaller than his pinky if he held it up for comparison. As he was so perplexed from this mystery he was caught almost completely offguard by the voice behind him, a fellow Engineer. He couldn't remember how tall she was or what colour her hair was but only that she had a pretty face, young but pretty, it hadn't yet seen all the horrors that conflict could show and it was very much untouched from battle and had no signs of scarring or fatigue. He had guessed her at 20 tops.

"So?" she said, as he had completely missed what she first said to catch his attention, rather than asking her to repeat herself he gives a half hearted shrug in response before she speaks again, "All the breaches in the defences are plugged and all the turret's have fresh batteries. Did i do good?" He turned back to the darkness to try to spot the light once again but couldn't find it, he decided to leave it be and turned to be surprised that the young woman he had spotted before was now standing by his side and was gazing out into the blackness, "Floodlights should be illuminating that area, they must've shut shut off or something." "It's fine" was all he was able to conjure together, feeling that he had to say something sooner or later. "Did good kid, not bad for your first field day as an Engineer either." He sipped from his flask once more before holding it out to her, "What's in it?" She asked with a surprised look upon her face, "Just coffee" he replied. It was at that moment that he spotted the light only slightly bigger this time and before he could even conjure the words in his mind to say them, a loud PANG echo'd through his ear on the right side, momentarily stunning him. It was instinct that made him drop to a crouch, moving wasn't necessary as there were barricades and cover between him and the light, "Son of a bitch" was all he could mutter, taking several moments and a few deep breaths before finally looking to his right to check that the other Engineer was okay.

She must have fallen as he crouched as she was still clutching onto the flask and he noticed he hadn't entirely let it go either, he then spotted the absence of life from her body as she lay next to him, her face hidden under her bulky armor and chest pouches. He leaned over her and discovered that her once young and beautiful face was now a bloody mess with a pool of blood already forming around her head on the cold paved floor. He was stunned and the sudden ripping of machine guns from the fellow marines around him had completely escaped him. The alarm rang out and the several marines around the Engineer hopped the barricades and charged off into the darkness, the lights from their armor preventing them from being consumed by the darkness as they ran with their rifles firing constantly at a target that was long gone.

He didn't know what to say or what to do except other than to clutch the warm metal flask, her hand had lost it's grip upon it and fell, he was pushed aside by two field medics as they swiftly lay her pale body on a stretcher and walked off without a second glance. He stood there, with his hand still clutching the flask, shaking uncontrollably from what he had just witnessed. A feeling of guilt rushed over him as he slowly pulled his senses back to him, several specks of blood had appeared on the flask which seemed to condem him all the more. It was at this moment that he had fully realised that as quickly as life was given, it could be taken away. The gunshots in the distance fell silent as did the alarm and after several moments of silence, the marines that had chased after the light had returned with smiles on their faces and another notch on their kill tally. "That's one less spook for us to kill, fuckin' cocksucker." one said as they walked past the Engineer. "Cheer up buddy! We got him, we nailed the sniper." They walked off back into the FOB with glee in their hearts and minds. After several minutes of staring at the flask, he turned to be face to face with the darkness once again, looking off into the abyss, still dazed from what had just happened, he lifted the flask to his lips and tasted a fluid other than coffee in the flask. He stared back into the darkness once more...

[Martzin]

Not a bad read, and honestly I give you props for not making it a thing about xenos. It's good to take your mind off them and think of fighting other humans, just the thought of an alien makes me salty...

This has inspired me to write my own short story about human v. human warfare.

[Dirty Old Harry]

Not a bad read, and honestly I give you props for not making it a thing about xenos. It's good to take your mind off them and think of fighting other humans, just the thought of an alien makes me salty...

This has inspired me to write my own short story about human v. human warfare.

Whenever i think of a potential story that my character has seen then it's always in a human on human conflict or a humanoid likeness. Like a rebellious planet or an alien life form that is identical to a human. Sort of because i just prefer fighting humans and the whole thing about this being the first time the USCM has fought the xenos (That we know of).

Thanks anyways.

[Monoo]

P. good mate I really enjoyed how short and brutal it was. A nice bit of realism.

Word of advice, remember to keep it simple. You put a lot of language into every sentence, which made reading kind of difficult.