Mist

Old Acquaintance

Upon entry, an officer-looking alien checks me out. Right away, we are heading towards the base. I look around the ship and about 100 soldiers of all different types are sitting in this room. One gets up and walks towards me while slowly taking off their helmet. It's Risu, the soldier I saved in the beginning. I give her a forced smile. She stares at me with a real smile and tries to hug me. It's kind of awkward because I'm laying in a bed.

She looks me in the eyes and says, "You've had better days, haha!" She slaps me. Maybe it was supposed to come off as friendly, but I feel attacked. She uses a more serious tone as she says, "How did you make it this far?" I fill her in on what I can leading up to how I was randomly smuggled here by a supposed Empiric human general.

She gazes at me in disbelief and says, "...What's your kill rate?" I stare back. I have no idea how many aliens I killed. I think back to my time in the city, guess about 600, and proudly say that number. She looks at me like I won everything in the universe. She explains, "When I met you on that weird pink tank, you couldn't even shoot the aliens right. But, you brought the funk to our squad." I nod at her and laugh.

She proceeds to introduce me to a whole bunch of people in the plane. To my understanding, they're all in Service under the command of her and some other alien. The whole plane comes to greet me, say their name, and tell a brief bio. I'm kind of annoyed, but I don't want to be mean, so I listen to them all.

After several agonizing hours, we make it to the largest base in Mist: in the capital city. Which is currently being bombarded by what looks like all of Unity. The thing about the Universal Guidelines on War and Invasion is that all you need to do invade a capital. Depending on the planet, the capital is easy to conquer. All you need is a box. This box is a code of conduct on owning a planet. Every species has the same box. I've never seen one before, but I do know that it shows the coordinates of the planet to whoever owns it. When a planet is invaded, that box can be transferred to a new owner and that new owner controls the planet.

But there's such a thing as a planet without a box. Sometimes, alien species aren't part of our rules and regulations. So, if a war breaks out with them, wars are long and painful for both species, but it doesn't mean that the planet isn't worth invading. It feels like Unity in this case is having a total invasion of our planet. They are invading it like we are a species with a lack of a capital box. It's strange and expensive, but Unity knows that it needs the capital.

Unity has to kick our butts to get the capital, hence all of their forces attacking here. The capital is in the mountains of Mist. They are very rugged and huge trees grow on them. Fog covers them 24/7, so it's hard for any aircraft to see. The capital is here is because it should be the hardest place to get to in any invasion. Our capital can be defended by nature. Our capital is small, only one building where the Mist president is. I don't know anything about them. It's guarded by at least 100,000 Service, Vendetta troops.

We all get armor equipped with a gas mask as well as a visor like a cyclops that can be adjusted to see further. Our weapons consist of a super long rifle that's probably a sniper. Pretty cool. But why would a sniper be used for this situation where there's so much Unity that, scientifically speaking, would be considered a new body of land?

The mountains where the capital is are also known for it snowing practically all the time. It's so cold, our armor is really puffy with white fur. One other thing we are given is a wing suit with a parachute. I have no idea how to work the wing suit, but I know how to work a parachute. Just as I was thinking about how I don't know how to work the wing suit, the back of the plane opens.

The sky is filled with tons of tiny planes similar to ours flying behind us. "What a beautiful sight." Riso yells over the radio drowning out the wind.

"Yep!" I scream back.

"It looks like we are bringing the fire back to Unity," She says to me.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means," She pauses, "You know what it means."

"I don't. What is the fire?"

"The fire is us Nobis."

"But... we are bringing it back. What are we bringing it back from?"

"Unity."

I stop talking. She starts talking again, "Do you know how to fly this thing?"

"No!"

"Well... you were a fun guy,"

The butterflies in my stomach must have taken steroids. My breath quickens because, understandably, I'm a little stressed out. Inside, the plane starts beeping. Large aliens jump out. Next, smaller ones. Then, it gets to humans.

I'm in the middle of the line, which is not great. At least it's not last. I don't have to sit and wait for my death of traveling in snowy mountains with a sniper visor with no peripheral vision. Suddenly, I'm next in line. I freeze. "It's not that cold, why do you look frozen?" Riso says, laughing, before pushing me out of the plane. I scream for mercy. "Good luck," I hear as I descend to the capital.