The Swan's Song.

Chapter 3

"Medical checkup? Was my examination not good or something?" Thought Rita. Externally, Swan looked fine to her, disregarding the obvious starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion.

His lack of complaint regarding any sort of injuries or pain told her that either he wasn't in any or that he wasn't going to tell anyone if he was in pain. Rita deduced that such an action was most likely a way to not show any sign of 'weakness' around them.

While somewhat understandable, it was a foolish endeavor. Suffering in silence helped nobody, and if he had any sort of issues like he when he was complaining to Brixley, then he needed to address them like an adult.

She watched through the screen, much like the rest of her squad and the other soldiers.

"We're making great headway, Swan, but I have to ask one more time: Are you sure you won't join the APG?" She asked. Swan shook his head and some of the others in the room snorted.

"Persistent." Said one.

"It's a fruitless endeavor." Said another.

The remarks about the General were true. Brixley was relentless in her endeavor to get Swan to join them, seemingly for no reason.

Rita thought it quite strange, but nothing really fazed her anymore due to the war and the way it was. One becomes desensitized to the strange and unnatural, especially as a combat medic.

Swan shook his head, as expected. Rita huffed at the futility of the situation. Swan wasn't acting any more difficult than what she would expect. In fact, she expected Swan to be belligerent.

Sitting and talking at the table with more than a modicum of maturity wasn't what she had in mind for this interaction. Perhaps Callie was right about him.

"What could he be hiding in that mind of his?" She pondered. Swan certainly seemed like he had a reason to want to leave besides being stuck in a base with the literal people who had tried to kill him for five years.

He fought hard to resist the General, but he eventually gave in when it seemed that he realized he wasn't going to be let loose.

And now, she was forcing him to play by their rules and join their forces.

The day was chock full of surprises and Rita only expected more.

Their was the strange reverence that Swan had for their dead. He held a strange respect for them, being the only one to bring up what they would think.

Then, there was the comment he had made about his group and who fired first. It was true that the group of humans that had tormented them did not take the first shots which sparked the five year long hell that was their battle.

And lastly, Swan really seemed pissed that Sako had lost two of their members.

"Or that they were forced to kill two of our squad members. It's not like we aren't famous or something." Thought Rita. Sako Squad was renowned throughout the entire APG, and most likely the world at large by now, for being the best special forces squadron.

The tales of what Rita called their 'escapades' were widespread among the standard soldiery, inspiring hope and showing that a job could get done no matter how tough.

She wasn't aware of the true reaction, but when news of their friends demise came to light, there was, apparently, a day of mourning throughout the APG controlled lands.

Rita still remembered how strange it was. The public knew of them like celebrities, and yet, Swan's group still wasn't even fully catalogued at that point. They didn't even know how many different humans they were fighting.