When the ocean meets fire

~~~~~~~~~~~Triumph~~~~~~~~~~~~

“YAAAAA!” Taz’s famous battle-cry could’ve probably been heard from Earth as she charged over the top of the group’s hiding place. They were on the planet Bexarus, and though it was only a minor mission because the robot wars hadn’t long ended, there were always going to be alien thugs about; these alien thugs were terrorising a large cluster of villages in Bexarus, and the G.L.E.E had been assigned to destroy them, as it wasn’t possible to keep alien thugs in jail for long.

They’d arrived about a week ago, and they’d had to scour the streets looking for signs as to where these aliens were hiding. Taz had been the one to locate the aliens’ lair; she’d seen a suspicious-looking ‘man’, with overly-large yellow eyes he’d tried to seclude under a hat, slipping through a gap in the rocks just west of Geeorjiborough (an especially ugly, shady-looking rough village with a lot of crime- very unusual for the planet Bexarus). She’d ordered the rest of the team to follow her and, sure enough, they’d seen another six similar ‘men’ entering and exiting the gap in the rocks. They then snuck in between the rocks (much to Hibbart’s dislike, but Taz was insistant) and hid in a dead-end in the rock maze that was beyond the gap.

So when Taz had seen her chance, she’d taken it: Hibbart had just finished whispering his plan to them, when a whole group of aliens without costume came round the corner and walked past their hiding place. She swung her zapper from her back and leapt from the dead-end, Hibbart and the rest of the group not far behind.

She caught the fuchsia-skinned aliens by surprise, so she was able to shoot three of them down before they even turned to face her. The rest immediately came at them with guns which seemed to fire poisonous bullets (Taz gathered this from the sight of an ensign on the ground frothing at the mouth after being shot). She ducked and four bullets narrowly missed the top of her head, shoulders and neck; this immediately fuelled the rage in her that had only been diluted by the quiet prior to a fight before. She hauled herself up from her crouching position and sprinted towards the aliens. One of them shot at her but she dodged right and shot it twice, right in the heart. She ran over to its now dead body and spat on it.

“Dat was for jou, Up.” She said, speaking only to herself but with the intensity that could’ve filled the whole of the great hall in the G.L.E.E base.

From that moment on, every single alien- and everything she destroyed or killed in fact- was for Up. Every triumph was for him. Every triumph was a step closer to seeing him again.

She was momentarily distracted by her thoughts, but fortunately noticed in time that another alien was approaching her. She spun around and gave it three shots to the chest, shoulder and head- Up’s signature kill. She saw an ensign struggling to fight a couple of aliens about ten metres away from her, and managed to shoot one of them in the back from where she stood; she realised that she was fighting more and more like Up, and she liked it- at least a small part of him fighting with her.

***

Thud; the last alien hit the ground after Taz shot it right between the eyes. She grimaced at all the bright pink alien bodies surrounding them, and the one of Ensign Spokes, which Hibbart was crouched over with the rest of the team. Taz jogged over and saw that he was thankfully still alive, but was still shuddering and his eyes were unfocused and cloudy. She crouched opposite Hibbart and caught his eye; he looked worried. Taz racked her brains for something she could do, and remembered something Up had once told her: Just because you’ve conquered the enemy doesn’t mean the battle’s over...

That was it! Taz leapt off the ground and ran towards the nearest alien body.

“Lieutenant Taz!” Hibbart called after her, “Stay with the squad!” but he knew it was no use telling Taz what to do, and she kept on running. As soon as she reached the alien she pulled away its gun, taking care to locate the trigger so she didn’t accidentally pull it, and turned it on its side. She found exactly what she was looking for just under the barrel: a small test tube-like container full of a lime green liquid- antidote. She yanked it out of the gun and sprinted back to Hibbart.

“What the hell were you doing, Lieutenant? Haven’t I always told the team to stay-” She silenced him by shoving the antidote in front of him.

“Antidote, Commander.” She breathed, looking at him intently.

“But how-”

“The aliens had them in their guns, just in case they shot each other.” Hibbart looked impressed. A private coughed not-so-subtly and Hibbart was brought back to reality. He held Ensign Spokes’ mouth open and poured the antidote in. The rest of the team waited with baited breath, but she was sure she’d given him the right thing; Up always meant what he said.

After just twenty seconds, Spokes started to splutter and his eyes came back into focus. There was a joint sigh of relief throughout the group, and Hibbart helped the boy up to his feet.

“Woah- I thought I was gonna die back there!” the ensign said when they’d gotten safely back on the ship.

“Well son, you would’ve done if it wasn’t for the Lieutenant.” He gestured to Taz and she glared at him,

“I was just getting de job done, Commander.” She said, but Spokes gave her a half-smile all the same.

Later, as Taz was retreating back to her room for the night, Hibbart called her over to him. She rolled her eyes, but turned and walked over to him.

“That was a pretty smart thing you did today, Lieutenant.” She shrugged at him,

“It wasn’t really me- I remembered something... someone once told me.” She looked down, not ready to say his name to anyone but herself in fear that she might show her true emotions. Annoyingly, Hibbart seemed to understand though, and went to pat her on the shoulder, but then decided against it: he didn’t want a knife in his back. Instead, he said to her,

“I’m sure Commander Up would be very proud of you, Lieutenant.” And with that he turned and strode down the corridor, back to his room.

Taz would have normally glared at anyone who said Up’s name, but in this instance, the fact that Up would be proud of her was a triumph.

Another step closer to him.