Year 5 of deployment.

  Vertan’s Daero Counter crackles and beeps. 44.26%. Somewhat down from when it was 48.07% at the beginning of the month. Their platoon has been out in the field engaging with the Class A Type 3 anomaly. A “Tank Demon” as they called it. Other platoons across the city fight to secure control of the retreating Demons, their gunfire rumbling in the distance.

  Between breaks, Vertan lights a cigarette before handing it to Hilgo, standing next to him. There was enough smoke and debris in the air for the Demon to not immediately detect their smoking, and they take the much needed break with immense gratitude.

  At that moment, Vertan’s mind didn’t consider the huge paycheck that would come with their task. Injuries have been incurred. Though their squad has thus far been lucky, some deaths have been reported on the job from others across their platoon. For a fleeting second, Vertan thought about leaving for home, as short as their service has been and as far away from retirement they still are, despite significant progress.

  “Boy, could you imagine this being in your hometown?” Etrad comments.

  “I can’t,” scoffs Fero. “Looks ugly as shit to me, I call this a makeover.”

  “What’s their deal, anyway?” questions Calian. “If these demons can just go home and quit conspiring to murder innocents, there wouldn’t be all this trouble.”

  “Don’t try to pin reason to the unreasonable,” remarks Fero. “They ain’t like us and that’s all that matters. Some things go around looking for trouble.”

  “Right?” adds Reja. “We wouldn’t have done anything if they didn’t, either. Made us come all the way out here for their trouble they stirred up.”

  “I’m sayin’!” says Fero.

  “I swear of course these ancient fucks have to do something dumb like—” says Calian.

  “Quiet!” Hilgo shushes, waving his hand in a downward motion. Peering through his visor’s HUD, he was able to see around the corner down the wide street without having to peer his head out.

  “What?” murmured Etrad with a lowered voice. “What is it?”

  “Hold on, that building’s about to give in,” says Hilgo. “Eyes peeled, I bet it’s gonna use that as a cover.”

  “Oh shut up, Hilgo, you give these demons too much respect and credit—,” begins Fero.

  And with a rumbling thunder, the eviscerated tower that once stretched tall against the sky began falling down, collapsing in on itself. Volumes and clouds of dust and debris picked up from its untimely demise.

  Suddenly, in the middle of its collapse, something breaks cleanly through the building’s thick walls twenty meters in the air, pounding the debris it strikes into powder. Coming into view as it flies out of its trailing smoke, Hilgo sees through his visor the dreaded Tank Demon, its treads rolling, and its barrel turned ominously as though it stared straight at him.

  “Get down!”

  A strong blast planted on one of the buildings’ walls goes off, firing up a projectile that hits the Tank Demon and sends it flying into the opposite wall across the street. The speed of the Tank Demon’s sheer mass crashing through the smaller building collapses it shortly after, landing inside a much larger one behind it. Having missed its shell, it whips through the air past them by a hair’s margin and collapses a different building down the street.

  “Did we get it?!”

  “It missed us, I think we did!”

  “That was some good placement earlier, Vertan!” compliments Hilgo.

  “Your idea, thanks to you!” replies Vertan.

  “Lovebirds,” mutters Fero.

  The squad moves from their position, vehemently checking their surroundings as they make their way to where the Tank Demon landed. Or, is believed to have landed; even their instruments couldn’t be fully trusted. Following Etrad’s lead, they make their way through the rubble, entering the goliath building which the Tank Demon had crashed through.

  The interior was wide and open, its beams and pillars remaining intact but many of its floors either having collapsed or no longer abiding by the laws of physics. The occasional pocket of rogue gravity either made each step lighter, or tugged them towards the ground.

  “How could a thing so big hide so easily?” mutters Syani through comms, looking back upwards at the gaping hole left in the building. Pieces and shards of debris from the impact still float in the direction the Tank Demon had crashed through. It was nowhere to be seen.

  “Damn comms decide to give out at this time,” grumbles Etrad. “Anyone communicated our position to other squads?”

  “I did earlier,” says Calian.

  “Can you check if it went through?” asks Etrad.

  “Sure thing—oh, no it didn’t?” says Calian.

  “Can you try again?”

  “It’s not working for me either.”

  “Fucking kidding me. Vertan?”

  “Mine neither,” replies Vertan. “I’m stuck on local, too.”

  “How could a thing so big hide so easily?” mutters Syani, looking back upwards at the gaping hole left in the building.

  “It was working just fine earlier, no?” continues Vertan.

  “I swear it was,” replies Etrad. “I swear they give us the cheapest shit.”

  “I think it is fine,” says Hilgo. “Wait—”

  “How could a thing so big hide so easily?” mutters Syani, looking back upwards at the gaping hole left in the building.

  Hilgo suddenly runs back and pulls Syani over to the side.

  “Hey!” exclaims Syani. “What was that for?”

  “Time loop,” whispers Hilgo. “Broken comms. Be quiet, it’s here.”

  With a shared sense of paranoia, the group immediately split into groups, each hiding behind one of the huge columns supporting the building’s internal structure. Every passing second begins to crawl by as though it were a minute.

  There was no sign of the Tank Demon, nothing. No sight, no sound, no smell, no signal. But neither did any sign come from any of their other squads and platoons outside.

  “Don’t,” whispered Vertan. “Move. It doesn’t know we noticed it yet.”

  Concealed in dark shadows far above Calian and Reja, there it was. In an impossible position for something of its size and magnitude, the massive 100 ton tank slowly crawls down the column with an uncanny smoothness, as though a spider had the same grace as a cobra. It appeared severely damaged as though it was on its last legs, if it had any. And yet, to their awe, it still moved as though a predator in its natural habitat.

  “Hilgo,” whispers Vertan.

  “What?” Hilgo whispers back.

  “I’m going to need to borrow your portal ring.”

  “Why?”

  “Or else they’re going to die!”

  “Alright, alright, here!”

  Quickly, Vertan wirelessly connects his and Hilgo’s portal rings to each other locally as both ends of the construct. He opens and throws Hilgo’s portal ring out behind them away from the Tank Demon, and it floats face-down above the ground. He then opens his, signaling Calian and Reja to jump upwards into the portal when he passes it over.

  He looks up at the Tank Demon which now stood still above. It knows, he thought. The two stood still for a moment, as everyone else anticipated anxiously. Who was going to make the first move?

  With a quick and sudden movement, Vertan throws the portal ring as though it were a spinning disc, and Calian and Reja jump into it as it passes above their head, falling down onto the ground out the other side of Hilgo’s portal.

  Right at the same moment, a shot fires from the Demon’s barrel, and the beam goes through the top side of the portal, also shooting out of Hilgo’s portal from the other direction, instantly striking the distant top of the building with a thundering crack! Debris began to fall erratically as it stumbled down and through gravity pockets and time loops.

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  “Move!”

  “Get out of the way!”

  “Shit!”

  Everyone scrambles out of the way as the tank leaps down, its thunderous impact sending the ground shaking. Vertan’s portal ring is crushed in the process, and Hilgo rushes to barely retrieve his.

  A disorienting wave of unease washes over everyone, and suddenly, the rules of gravity were changed, and they began falling onto the structural columns instead of the ground. This likewise seems to catch the tank equally off-guard. Vertan looks up, standing sideways, to find Hilgo standing upside down at a complete ninety-degrees angle to him. The rest are spotted recovering across the web-like structure.

  Shots fired as everyone struggles to regroup and strategize. The tank, with unthinkable agility using its winch, swiftly swung through the structure, flipping and turning as it leapt, chasing down each fleeing squad member. No shot could penetrate its armor, with there not being enough time to reliably charge it up.

  “You got a clear shot, kill it already, damn it!”

  “I’m out of juice!”

  “I don’t care, do something!”

  Debris, objects, and the squad members midair orbit around the columns amidst the chaos.

  “Hilgo!” shouts Vertan.

  “What?!” Hilgo shouts back from across the building.

  “Open your ring!”

  “Again?! Why?!”

  “Do it! I have an idea! Etrad!”

  “Busy!” Etrad responds.

  “I need you to open your ring!”

  “Now?! Why?!”

  “Just do as I say!”

  “Fine! If this—shit!”

  In the chaos, Etrad drops his portal ring, collapsed into a capsule, down the building. It gets smashed in between two large pieces of rubble.

  “Fuck!” exclaims Vertan. “Syani!”

  “What?!” shouts Syani from a nearby column. “You need mine?!”

  “Fine, just toss it!”

  Barely catching it, Vertan grasps the portal ring in his fingers, then his hand, and flees just before a shot blasts through the column next to him.

  “Hilgo!” Vertan shouts through comms.

  “What!” Hilgo yells back.

  “I need you to pair your ring to mine!”

  “Again?!”

  “Yes, again! Do it!”

  “Fu—fine! Where’s your signal? Hurry up, damn it!”

  “I got it, I got it!”

  “You got it?!”

  “I said yes I got it!”

  “What are you doing?!”

  “Hilgo, I need you to point your ring at the Demon!”

  “What!—Oh, got you!”

  “Everyone else, move out of the way!”

  Vertan clambered his way back to the ground, drawing attention as the Tank Demon wreaked chaos erupting behind him.

  “You got a good sight?” Vertan asks Hilgo through comms.

  “I got it!” Hilgo replies. “Don’t kill yourself, now!”

  Scrambling across the ground, Vertan moves out of the Tank Demon’s line of sight, catching his breath behind a column for a moment. He could sense its desperation. A month of wearing it down, surely its instincts shouldn’t be as sharp anymore. Peering around the corner, he sees the tank’s barrel aimed directly at him, and a small shot whips past in front of his eyes, tearing a small hole through the wall behind him. It knows where he is; he can’t move now.

  Hearing the tank’s cannon briefly charge up, Vertan opens his portal ring, stretches its size to cover him, and sees Hilgo on the other side.

  The Tank Demon fires, a scorching beam of white ripping clean through the column Vertan was standing behind. The shot goes through the portal ring, and slams straight down from above through Hilgo’s side, penetrating its own armor and setting the beast ablaze. A thunderous shockwave almost throws everyone off their feet.

  “Holy shit!” Hilgo exclaims, looking down from his side.

  “Good shit, Vertan!” shouts Syani.

  Coming out from behind the portal ring, Vertan walks out to inspect the scene. Hilgo followed through shortly after, though the searing heat from the shot soon burned both ends, collapsing the construct.

  The two of them approached the Tank Demon cautiously. A month of fighting it had led them to believe it could jump back to life for no reason at all. An ominous hissing made them hesitate, but with a metallic pop!, a piece flew off, and they were relieved once again.

  Hilgo noted its statistics on his HUD. Daero Counter now down to 38.97%. A pulsing frequency on the Daero’s beeping seemed to continually slow and soften, until it finally stopped, and the number came to rest at 35%. A sound mixed between humming, hissing, and whirring that he hadn’t previously noticed had also now gone quiet.

  Etrad, Fero, Calian, Reja, and Syani soon joined Vertan and Hilgo back on the ground. The adrenaline soon began to wear off, and everyone slowly began laughing at their result.

  “No way, did I see what I thought I did?”

  “You did!”

  “Oh, man!”

  “Has anyone thought of this before?”

  “I’m surprised I haven’t seen this tactic before!”

  “We got lucky this time for sure!”

  Hilgo continues to walk around the massive tank, inspecting the wreckage as the fire slowly subsides.

  You’d think demons would die more dramatically, he mused to himself. And yet here its corpse still lies.

  Though charred, he could make out symbols, and an emblem on the tank. Who might this have once belonged to? He wondered. At that moment, he felt a strange sympathy. Perhaps it still thought it was serving to protect its creators, who are now long gone. If it could think.

  In a moment of curiosity as he attempts to rub ashes off of the strange metal, a thought hits him. There seemed to be nothing unusual about the Tank Demon, anymore. What constitutes it as a “demon”? Was it its behavior and movement? Somehow, he had expected that perhaps something strangely paranormal might have happened upon even touching it, but nothing did. As foreign and alien as it was to them, it seemed to be oddly normal.

  “Hilgo!” Vertan calls. “Where are you at?”

  “Over here!” Hilgo replies, coming back from around the wreckage. “Just making sure it’s dead!”

  “And there he is!” exclaims Etrad. “Cheers to the best shot amongst the stars!”

  *****

  The Fifth Squad of the Third Platoon was rewarded spectacularly within the Special Expeditions, and word soon got around of their zero-casualty victory against a Class A anomaly.

  Everywhere they went, people began to recognize and respect them as legends in their own right. The squad was given paid time off vacation to a constructed pleasure world meant to provide rest and recuperation in between expeditions. At a grand palace by the coastline, club music permeated the night, the squad shared drinks, Etrad and Calian both laugh on as Fero fails to flirt with any woman he comes across. Reja and Syani had booked a private room together.

  Vertan joins Hilgo on a separate patio, the two being dressed in casual clothes for the first time in a very long while. Cracking open a bottle, Vertan hands it to Hilgo, the two share a toast, and sip their drinks with delight.

  “Can’t believe that was last week already, huh?” says Hilgo, grinning.

  “I know, right?” adds Vertan as he takes another swig. “I was getting worried too, that was our toughest one yet.”

  “Ah, but we made it through now, didn’t we?”

  “As always!”

  “Man, they know how to party it up good back here.”

  “I figure people have to let off steam somehow.”

  “One of the many rewards we get out of it, eh?”

  “You got with anyone around here earlier?”

  “Me? After seeing how Fero did, I don’t want to be embarrassing myself!”

  The two men laugh, and suddenly, they were two young boys again drinking juice on Mother Zviedal’s front deck. A momentary silence passes.

  “You know,” Vertan starts. “Lately, I think I kind of get what you mean now.”

  “Mean what?” Hilgo asks.

  “You know, a few years ago? You hated coming here!”

  “What, you sick of it already? It was your idea coming here!”

  “Well yeah, but there’s a time for everything! I think I might be homesick.”

  “Get outta here. No way you’re telling me that.”

  “I said I might! I was thinking about coming back soon after our latest. We have more than enough now.”

  “Come on, man! We can go for another!”

  “Really? You, of all people, saying that?”

  “Hell no! Of course not, I’m kidding! By the cosmos, Vertan, I’ve been waiting to hear that from you for years! This whole experience has been giving me nightmares in my sleep and I’m ready to put that behind me.”

  Vertan couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Hey!” says Hilgo. “I’m being serious! How many times could we have died?”

  “But have we?” Vertan retorts.

  “Don’t give me that—” Hilgo rolls his eyes.

  “And we got rewarded for the risk now, didn’t we?” smiles Vertan.

  “By a lot,” grins Hilgo.

  The two men let out another chuckle. The stars appear brighter here on the pleasure-world, and the planet’s rings shone fantastically across the sky. They must deliberately keep its atmosphere clean for that kind of experience, so Vertan thought.

  “Alright man,” says Vertan. “We can go home soon.”

  “You mean it?” asks Hilgo.

  “I don’t want to still put up with you in my ear as a commander!”

  “Hey, now!”

  “We can probably leave after our next assignment, I just got word of it.”

  “Oh, ugh, what is it?”

  “Don’t worry, man! It’s just an easy security position. We’re gonna be rotated to Gateworld Thoma for a few weeks.”

  “A few weeks? Maaaaan.”

  “Come on, it’s top security, super safe and nothing ever happens there. It’ll be fun!”

  “Only you can make a security job fun, Vertan.”

  “I’m saying it’ll be fun for you because it’s boring there.”

  “Are you calling me boring?”

  “Yes!”

  “Shut up! I didn’t spend five years away with you on this damn thing so you can call me boring—!”

  The two men bickered a small bit more on the patio before going back in. Despite all the big talk, they end up too shy and anxious to court any women.

  A week after, the Third Platoon is rotated by troop-carrier to Gateworld Thoma, the Coalition’s most valuable strategic logistics hub.