[color=slategray]"The past is a foreign country."
6 Months Ago[/color]
[hr]As the E.S.M.G.'s hold on the city became nigh on impossible and with the fall of the main HQ, Major General Batzorig reined all of his forces, along with many others, into a perimeter surrounding F.O.B. Steel. Neo Beijing became the last hotspot of ECU resistance against the wailing tide of Whiny Fucks, a name used by the last defenders of the ruined government as an insult to the revolutionary's legitimacy. To some, this killing was just business. A contract with an end which seemed to be coming near. To many others, this once foreign conflict became very personal. The ex-Protectors hanging on who have lost all that they knew, clinging on to what seemed like their last hope from a vengeful tide. The newly formed [i]Mercenarios[/i] who deserted their own army after losing too much and gaining too little from this conflict. And even the apes, who were sent here by the wishes of their city-states, felt abandoned in a useless cause and desperate after so many losses.

Not that the mercenaries did not make Whiny Fucks pay. Blood was paid back with blood, bodies stacking on both sides. Surrounded on all sides with no help, F.O.B. Steel should have been an anarchic mess that the Flowers could sweep up. But allies of convenience can quickly become brothers in arms.

The E.S.M.G. had been holding its current perimeter for over a few days, with fortified checkpoints and constant patrols. Bolstered by human allies, the mercenaries had some reprieve in their week of constant retreat. The land they occupied was empty of anything aside from IEDs and ambushes among burnt-out buildings. For now, there was some quiet on Checkpoint Charlie and within was an unlikely foursome you would not have seen anywhere else in the galaxy.

They were banging their heads to the tunes of old-Earth 50 Cent. Well, at least three of them were.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3crqpClPY][color=slategray][i]"♩ Many men, wish death upon me / blood in my eye dawg and I can't see ♭"[/i][/color][/url]

A heavily scarred [i]Mercenario[/i] took a sip of his ¡Bomba! drink, a sought-after and jealously guarded prize among the rationing Matuvistan deserters at the moment. "[i]Hijo de putas[/i], I don't understand why you like this shit music."

"I like this better than your mariachi bands."

"Fuck up Adrien, you don't know what a mariachi band [i]is[/i], had to learn it from the monkey even though you live in this Earth-loving hell-"

Both received a banana peel to the face each, courtesy of a tribal-looking, laughing chimpanzee in a skirt. The Matuvistan sputtered as one flap entered his mouth but Adrien was smart enough to keep his golden visor up, the peel falling and sticking on the scratched "PROTECTOR" logo instead. Both looked his way but only one visibly glared at the diminutive ape, which only sent him cackling. "Who knew humans were so stupid? I dearly hope the spirits, bless their souls, were not close to even half of how stupid you are Juan. Bloody bareskins."

"[i]¡Qué Cabrón! ¡Fucking el mono![/i]"

"Fake Spanish fuckers."

[i]"¡Pendejo!"[/i]

"Drug addled softie."

"[i]¡Coño![/i]"

"I [i]heard[/i] the exclamation points in that one. Is all you know is shouting, swearing and drugs? I swear you barely know Spanish beyond swear words."

"Don't forget the women, drinking and killing [i]mi hermano[/i]. If only you monkeys were a race of space babes instead of [i]babuinos[/i]. [i]Mierde[/i] I would kill for somewhere to lay some pipe, if you get what I me-"

"Your pipin' don't work as good as you think, Juan. Y'all should pay attention to the convoy ahead." As always, the quieter ex-Protector came in between the two loudmouths, focusing them on the job at hand. It's been the dynamics of the unlikely trio ever since they came together in Checkpoint Charlie. Due to the high attrition rates on patrols, the shifts on checkpoints had become longer and manpower shortages across the front caused previously separated forces together.

Thus how the quiet ex-Protector, loudmouthed [i]Mercenario[/i] and the foolish chimpanzee found company in each other. Charlie was equal parts lively and violent, culture clashes happening frequently between the three but they certainly got over their grudges quickly. One had to if one were to rely on that same face you punched to be saving your life an hour afterwards. Fights would only really happen between Juan and Xi, with Adrien breaking it between them.

Their job consisted of checking for hidden trackers, potential false flag attacks and intercepting enemy incursions within the area. Along with the ten others in Charlie, they would act as a QRF force to block any holes in the line. As it stands, they would be lucky if they could fill the hole in the broken toilet.

As the convoy stopped in front of the makeshift wire gate, the fourth member of the foursome came from behind the lumbering Adrien. The German Shepherd, lovingly nicknamed Lady by the former Protector, leapt forth nose first. 

Outwardly, Khanate-provided canines seem the same as the ones on Earth. As you learned while working with them, they were anything but those glorified house pets. Lady has a keener sense of smell than any naturally born dog, with a full three cones in her eyes, sharper intelligence and a fiercer bite than even an old Earth wolf. Fearsome, loyal and adorable all wrapped in one package. She would work in tandem with Adrien to search the vehicles as the others keep watch. It was slow, repetitive work but the black and gold armour-wearer felt calm in how [i]familiar[/i] it felt.

It was good to feel familiarity in things other than murder and violence. Other than those creeping voices in his head, the monsters which stalk his nightmares, metal and gaunt and screaming-

"Aight, they clear!" Adrien pulled a treat out of his pocket as Lady put her paws on his boots, looking up at him with puppy eyes. He scratched behind her ears with clean gloves, smiling softly under his mask. Yes, familiar and boring but so much [i]calmer[/i].

It would go like this for a few more hours as it neared to the end of their shift. Adrien patiently watching the other two banter with each other as Lady loyally laid at his feet. Check convoy, pass them through. Check convoy, pass them through. Soon enough the sun would go down the horizon and their officer signaled that the next shift members were coming through. He yawned, peering into the dimly lit streets.

"You okay friend?" A hairy hand wrapped itself on his bicep before a sudden hefty weight sat on the ex-Protector's shoulders. He merely shrugged the weight on as if it was nothing.

"It's nothin' Xi, just thinkin' that's all." There was a silence that stretched between the two comrades, looking out to the darkness. It was comfortable, more comfortable than Adrien has been since Zeta-5.

There was a tap on Adrien's head. "You know, I never got to thank you for trying to help me find my friend. Sergeant Marley deserves a friend like you. I just abandoned him there like a coward."

He waved his hand, dismissing the nervous chimp antics. "Don't worry 'bout it bud, ya can't do much when yer burning alive yknow."

A cackle and a slap to his helmet. Rude monkey, he thought. "You're right there, you big oaf." A pause and once again, that silence comes back. Tenser than before. "You know, if you wanna talk about what happened on Zeta, we can talk. We've been saving each other's asses long enough."

"It ain't worth it."

"That's what I said, before you convinced me to search. We all have each other's backs, my friend."

Adrien stood still for some time and watched the shadows stretch across the pavement. It would be a few minutes of this as his shadow lengthened over him. It felt like it was eating away at him, a caged monster now unleashed, a pain which felt stronger everyday. It made it harder to get up from bed, to eat and even to talk, at times. His teeth were yellow and he knew his hair was unruly from the lack of a shower. But ever since he [i]woke up[/i], he decided he did not deserve to be clean. The filth was too overwhelming for him to just wash it all away. He did not deserve remorse or sympathy, he was just a violent, big, dumb brute who slaughtered innocents. Others don't see it that way. But he did.

"I ain't dumb, yknow, even though ma tests keep saying I am. My ma just told me I was different from the other children. But these kids, yknow, they told me I was [i]wrong[/i] and [i]stupid[/i] and they called me a [i]retard[/i] or sumthin'. But I ain't ever wanted to hurt nobody, I just wanted to protect. Protector, it's in the name yknow? So I signed up like a good little boy, just before Zeta happened."

"This right here, ma home, if ya can even call it that anymore, is jus' different from Zeta. We jus' killed and killed and killed ova' there, killing all of 'em toasters as much as we could. It was, whatchumacallit, geno-cide?" Adrien let out a shaky breath, blood misting up his visor as he recalled his past. "Yeah, yeah it was genocide aight. Cold blooded murder. But it felt [i]good[/i], if ya catch me. It was that word they always be using, [i]right-eous[/i]. It never felt wrong to me but I guess I was the one that's wrong. Definitely felt that way when I came home, they started gettin' rid of ma buddies, everyone started lookin' at us weird. These were the people we were supposed to be protectin' but instead, we were murderin' 'em. Now it started to feel wrong."

He clenched his fists, shaking harder even as his buddy placed his hands on his helmet. "Everythin', everythin' I ever did was wrong. I couldn't do nothin' right. I failed my tests, I failed my old buddies. I fucked it up Xi. At Zeta, I failed bein' a human. A proper human wouldn't have done the things I did. They would've stopped Xi. But I just kept goin' and goin' yknow. And here, I failed even harder. I failed my ma, Xi. Them Whiny Fucks went after her, they knew who she was and they made, they made an "exam-ple" out of her. I dunno what that means but they messed her up real bad. Ma wouldn't stop bleedin' Xi, it was like those spirits of yours found me lackin' but ended up punishin' the wrong person. And I killed 'em all bud, I killed all of 'em Whiny Fucks who did that to my ma. B-But just like now, it didn't do nothin' right. It jus' made me empty, yknow. Empty is all I feel nowadays."

Adrien felt the weight come off his shoulders as the diminutive chimpanzee leapt down to face him. "You open that visor up, my friend."

Hesitatingly, he flipped the button up to reveal his face. A young, scarred face revealed itself, pale white from the lack of sunlight. A teen, a young fool with blue eyes and scraggly black hair. Couldn't even grow a beard right yet. Yet gaunt, haunted, lacking proper food and sleep. The eyes hid a much older man, old for all the wrong reasons. Xi stared at the boy, not with sympathy, but with understanding.

"You know what I see when I look at you Adrien?" The boy shook his head, shifting his eyes everywhere but into those staring at him. "I see a young, scared boy taken from his mama too early. I see a manipulated boy, a silly boy, maybe even a dumb boy, but I don't see the monster you keep telling yourself you are. You didn't know what you were doing back then, at least you know what you're doing now. And you know what you're doing friend? You're choosing."

"For the first time in your miserable life Adrien, you can [i]choose[/i]. You can be what you want to be. You can do what you want to do Adrien. Don't let your past weigh you down because right now, right now you're [b]surviving[/b]. And I can't fault you for that, Juan can't fault you for that, no one can! You're surviving to become a better man, to grow up, to be better than what you used to be. To become a [i]man[/i], not just a boy handed a gun and told what to do without knowing shit about life." The ex-Protector felt a hand reach for his own which he could barely see under the tears. "Don't worry my friend, it gets better from here."

The boy nodded slowly, wiping his tears away just in time, as Juan had finished his break. "¡Oi putas, we got one last convoy before we hit the roa- ¡mierde! You having a moment gringo?"

Adrien only laughed this time, tears receding punching the Matuvistan in the arm which elicited a sharp, manly yelp. "Mourning yer ruined pipe, that's all my friend. Cut back on the drugs, maybe yer gonna get it up next time." He patted his gaping friend on the arm, leaving the other cackling as Lady loyally followed his lead. She looked up at him, concerned with eyebrows furrowed. He only smiled, scratching behind her ears before looking at the new arrivals.

It was standard up until the truck in the middle, holding the wounded from the front. Adrien was joking with the occupants inside until he heard barking, harsh and loud. His head whipped towards Lady, barking at front tire. "Alrighty, what do we have here girlie?" As he jogged towards her, he heard her whine in a way he never had before. A ding sounded.

>WARNING: Sensor jammer detected
>IMMINENT DANGER: EXPLOSIVE DETECTED, LEAVE AREA IMMEDIATELY-

"Lady, get outta there-!"

It was fiery and fast, a high yield explosive designed to destroy the checkpoints. It failed at the last moment, only acting as a anti-personnel bomb rather than the bunker-blaster it was intended to be. The start of the last offensive, just before the E.S.M.G. decided to get off world. 

Former Protector Adrien Gausman, who had lied about his age to get into the Protectors to care for his mother. Murderer. Failure. Friend. Dead at 19. Honorary E.S.M.G. mercenary for life.[hr][color=slategray]Present time
The Steel, Olympus Mons, Mars[/color][hr]"She laid there, you know, wouldn't move from Charlie after you pushed her away. The mutt didn't want to leave the planet, would bite me whenever Juan and I came to get her. The last ship, we left on the last ship because of her, my friend."

It was one of many, a name etched on to a wall on a list which would only grow longer. Brothers and sisters, comrades-in-arms. Lost too early. 

Xi dropped the flowers off, as he now did every Monday, telling the same story each time. There were ex-Protectors around him, ones initially too scarred to truly be sent on missions, now keeping the peace in this little garden of the dead. Black armour and golden visor, a scratched "PROTECTOR" on their chest. Boys all of them, hated and scarred for life. He turned and they turned with him, stamping their feet in unison. 

"Come on men, we've got a job to do." He called a forward march, set to start patrols around The Steel's most prized area. El Muro de la Muerte. The Wall of the Dead.