[center][h2]Cpt. Saiyako[/h2][/center] Dirt rained down as the most recent magical bolt streaked into the ground, the earth quaking on impact as it sent vibration up the soldier's spine. Calmly whistling as he brushed off his helmet and clicked in a new magazine, the captain peered over the edge of the trench. The air was hazy with smoke and dust, the calm night broken by continued gun fire and cries of the wounded. Behind him Saiyako could hear the radioman of some other company jabbering away like someone gave him a healthy dose of panic-meds. Fucking idiots. It wasn't like panicking was going to let them live longer. "Sir," Oni dropped down from somewhere next to his new controller, "I have a situation report from centeral." "Alrighty then, gimme the sitrep then." Saiyako fired semi-blindly into the haze once more before lowing his head back into the extended hole inthe ground. "They say that your paperwork is another 2 weeks late." Oni said in the closest thing to snark a programmed robotic voice could manage. "Well fuck you too Oni" Saiyako's face was absolutely deadpan as he faced the robot. Seriously, did this model do nothing but snark? "Just give me the actual sitrep you glorified Wall-E." "Wilco. Centeral says that the most recent scan shows that hostiles are being rapidly reduced in numbers. We seem to be pushing them back." "That's good, hopefully we'll be don-" The wind rushed alive as the sky lit up with more fireballs but not just any, they appeared to be following their targets, seeking them out like hungry wolves before the rabbit. Crackling like small suns, Saiyako watched as they zoomed around and haunted poor souls who tried to dodge them to varying degrees of effectiveness. The Fusan wondered if this was their limit breaker move or something of that nature. Opening up unit coms again, Saiyako's voice rode the wavelengths to the headsets of all members of his unit, "Attention, this is the captain speaking. Prepare to--" The captain suddenly found himself flying through the air, a searing heat burning into his uniform as the ground fell under him; he was flying. Launched into the air, he wondered to himself, [i]Is this how I die? Game over before level one is over?[/i] Time slowed as he made his way back down to the ground. As he could feel his body landing on his neck in the most fatal way, his life flashed before his eyes. The times in school. The crash. The last moments of his father. The lowering of his mother's coffin. The struggle of moving from one job to the next to feed him and his sister. The promise he made to her when he left for the military that he'd come back alive. [i]Sorry...[/i] Saiyako thought, [i]Big brother isn't coming home after all.[/i] Then, a shift, a moment of change, one could even call it a twist of fate. The captain could feel his head move so that he wouldn't land in a way that'd turn him into a corpse and instead made contact with the ground with a hard, dull [i]thud[/i]. Gasping in the musky air for his breath, Saiyako patted himself down. He wasn't dead, but he felt he was supposed to be. "Sir, are you okay?" Oni inquisitively asked as the soldier got himself off the ground. "Y-yeah... I-I think... Just a bi-it... shaken-n." Saiyako thrusted his helmet onto his head once more and got up only to see another following fireball. Only this time, it wasn't heading for him. it was aimed at a bunker. The bunker where he knew Anat and Soko where. Once again time slowed as he tried getting up and dashing to the bunker, his breath a long drawn out curse that witnessed the fire enter through the slit and blow up inside of the fortification, collapsing part of the roof. His stomach dropped, Saiyako just witnessed the first of his unit to be killed in front of him. No. They weren't dead. They could still be alive under the rubble. "Anat! Soko! Lionel! Anyone in there?!" Saiyako yelled as he grappled smaller bits of stone metal out of the way, "Oi! Someone get over here and help me! I've got men trapped in here dammit!"