Fourteen years prior
The more one fights in war, the more one begins to question their purpose on the battlefield. Such sentiments are often true, but only if the soldier is guided by a moral compass, tempered and forged by experiences and beliefs which change and awake the soul within them.
A fifteen-year old female Vekaiyun soldier crumpled the piece of paper in front of her, all too familiar with the trappings of the old way of thought as she stood atop a heap of rubble and sand. While she was indeed young, and she was indeed fighting for the Vekaiyun Armed Forces, little else could be distinguished from her. A composite facade constructed of red plastic reinforced with steel backing housed her face, which included receptors in the eyepieces to spot movement and microphones to keep communication with her forces integrated and live. Included in the setup was an environmental filter used to remove any nuclear, biological, or chemical substances suspended in the air, allowing a constant flow of clean air to afford maximum health. The plate included housings for her ears, which were used to immediately receive reports from subordinates to superiors. Her body was encased in a special combat suit used to take full advantage of the dexterity of her vulpine body, fully trained and absolutely ready to engage in any task the battlefield presented. No tail was present - it was removed when she was young in order to prevent it from being a nuisance on the battlefield. Synthetic hair on the crown of her head proffered some kind of identity, but apart from the insignia, she was just as much the same as her fourteen other contemporaries. All young. All bred by the state for the purposes of loyalty to the nation of Vekaiyu, annihilation of the enemy, and leadership qualities over her uniformed men and women.
“Hejul General Ikrisia Levinile of the 79th Vekaiyun Infantry Division reporting to high command,” she began as she gazed out at the barren wastelands in front of her, the air thick with projectiles in the form of bullets, shells, and bombs. Buildings sighed and bowed to the harrowing shrieks from the sky , crumbling and sagging in the sandy environment. Tracks from tanks still fresh in the arid dirt littered the ground. Dead bodies in various states of decay and two sets of cloth uniforms dotted the terrain. “Anticipate Sector Thirteen to be secure within the next three-point-five hours. En route to Sector Fourteen where we will rejoin the front lines.”
“Hejul General Levinile!” a vulpine soldier greeted. He wore the typical Vekaiyun infantry uniform for a desert setting - a melange of brown on his stiff shirt and pants, brown boots, and a helmet with extended points to house the triangular ears. It was the choice uniform when chemical attacks were not imminent. “Emerald group is advancing past-” His body exploded when a land mine was tripped, spattering her uniform in a different shade of red.
“Mind the landmines!” she commanded, advancing on her position as groups of men and women shuffled their positions in strategic locations scattered about the battlefield. “Ruby group! Engage with the contingency set up in locale 4b!”
“Affirmative, general!” a voice called back over the radio.
Fighting in the region had ground to a standstill, but the inclusion of Levinile’s division coupled with her atypical yet risky tactics allowed for some breakthroughs, and the battle lines between Vekaiyu and Hethrostria shifted in favor of the vulpine nation. It was difficult, however, as she was not the only supersoldier in command of a division.
“Negative, negative!” Ehjy Nimuos, another supersoldier roughly the same age as Ikrisia, volleyed back. “I have operatives in that locale! This move will decrease the efficiency of my flank by at least fifty percent!”
“It would be prudent to follow the prescribed battle plans, or make note of any alterations as the attack progresses!” Satisfied with scoping the battlefield, she removed her rifle toted on her back and advanced from the large pile of rubble, entering deeper into what remained of the shell of a city in front of her. She was perhaps moving a bit too fast for everyone’s liking, but to her, the ultimate objective was to secure the area quickly, at all costs.
Her next objective was to meet up with Ehjy and another supersoldier, Todd Leyuski, who despite his age was being groomed for a higher position. While they all held the same rankings, it was clear the military favored him over all others. Ikrisia didn’t mind this. After all, if he was better suited for the role, then for the greater good of the nation, it should be awarded to him over her or all others.
Movement spotted across an alleyway resulted in several accurate shots emanating from her rifle, which quickly neutralized a small group of enemy soldiers identified by their uniforms alone. She was careful not to waste ammunition on civilians, as it was inefficient to waste effort on non-threats. She stuck close to the wall of the building, careful to keep watch of the falling shells as they pounded the landscape into submission. Her own troops moved passed her, their objectives clearly defined as they continued to sweep through the town in an attempt to seize an important choke point.
A nearby shell tore through a brittle building, exploding on impact as stonework rained down below. Luckily her suit prevented the high-pitched squeal and the resulting ear-splitting explosion from ringing in her head. “Onyx and Malachite groups, begin saturation bombing when in range! Ruby group, continue with securing Rublakrost Street! If this street is not secure by 0900 hours our chance of success reduces by roughly twelve percent!”
“General Levinile!”
She looked over at another soldier and acknowledged him with a nod.
“Several other Hejul Generals approach from the east!”
A quick turn of her head revealed Ehjy, Todd, and another general, Ivalsa McNusehy. The three of them were positioned very close together. Horribly inefficient. They would be wise to spread their forces out evenly to better sweep the perimeter.
“Ikrisia!” Todd Leyuski called out over the radio. “We are beginning our advance toward the enemy spearhead! By including you into our task force, we increase our chance of success by twenty-one percent!”
“I concur!” Of course, there were multiple ways to solve the problem at hand, she mused. After enduring enemy gunfire all the while picking off confirmed targets, Ikrisia joined the group, which had taken up a ‘wagon wheel’ formation, a tactic whereby each soldier put their backs to one another in a circle, their arms acting as spokes in a large wagon wheel from a bird’s eye perspective.
“Advance to locale 7d!” Leyuski demanded.
“How is your division doing, Ikrisia?” Ivalsa asked. She was the shortest of the bunch, but was surprisingly strong despite her size.
“Her unorthodox tactics have resulting in the eradication of at least one of her groups,” Ehjy barked. “I heard it over the radio waves. I take a more conservative, more responsible approach. It is more Vekaiyun to play under such pretenses. Max Venavle would be proud of my movements today! The Kral Commodore duty is mine!”
“The Vekaiyun dictator only cares about completing the objective!” Todd reminded as they continued moving northward, nonchalantly removing any opposition as they fired their weapons, creating a path of death in their wake. “Ikrisia realizes her duties. It is important that all our tactics are varied! Otherwise we’re clones and nothing more!”
“I’m more than a clone!” Ehjy growled.
“Aww, does someone miss the friendly confines of their test-tube?” Ivalsa giggled.
“I do not! We all came from test-tubes!”
“So? Yours was probably big and inefficient! Invalid! Invalid!”
“I am not invalid!”
“Leyuski!” Ikrisia interrupted. “When shall we break formation?”
“There goes Ikrisia again, kivia beep-boop robot with no personality,” Ehjy snickered.
Another shell exploded several bodies away, rocking the confines of the skeletal city as bloated torsos bequeathed bits of matter and a smattering of blood against the drab facades of buildings lining the important street. “New objective!” Todd commanded. “Secure the the choke point until infantry catches up!”
Ikrisia looked around the premises with eye windows partially obstructed by dried blood as she made her way to an outcropping, taking the most perilous position as it exposed her to potential enemy gunfire. But, that was the point as far as she was concerned, as this allowed for maximum coverage. She glanced back and observed where each of her own kin took their position. Ehjy was closest to her, while Ivalsa seemed to be in the center of the street, using a mode on her mask to determine sniper positions. Todd, on the other hand, moved forward to advance and meet the enemy head-on.
Her communication suddenly crackled. “Onyx and Malachite groups in position, General Levinile! Awaiting orders!”
Her aggressive tactics were beginning to pay off. “Commence saturation bombing on sectors 9c, 9d, and 9e to neutralize advancing forces beyond the choke point!” Once the order was placed, shells moving on their territory were soon outnumbered by white lines streaking across the sky as heavy artillery from Ikrisia’s division finally made it to position. The maddening missiles pelted positions northward, bombarding stationed opposition directly to the north. Large clouds of black and gray followed fireball explosions peering just beyond the no-man’s land choke point.
“Good thinking, Ikrisia,” Todd exclaimed. “Your aggressive tactics have increased our chances of success by thirty-five percent, at least by my estimation.”
Ikrisia turned to Leyuski to respond with a simple nod, but her attention was swayed by Ehjy, who had succombed to boredom and began shooting civilians. How inefficient that he would waste his ammunition on unarmed men, women, and children. But this was a bit different than simply removing lives on the battlefield. She shrugged it off once, but had to take a second look to see what was going on behind her. There was something… different. It was more than inefficient. It was… wrong. But how could it be wrong? It was meaningless to simply remove unarmed individuals - a waste of time. But there was something about the act that was off-putting. Something about the faces. The screams. The pleas. The older humans displaying unrestrained emotion toward the deaths of the youth before they too met their end. She put a hand to her head. While she was immersed in combat, her mind was completely off the battlefield. What was happening? Why was she so shaken by something so meaningless? It was inefficient to think like this when she was more than capable of increasing the chances of success by subduing more enemy threats.
She put an arm out, but didn’t know what to say.
“Ikrisia! You are acting most inefficient!” Todd exclaimed, paying little heed to what Ehjy just did. Did he notice? Did he feel it too? No, he only glanced back at him and did not offer any sort of reprimand. “Ikrisia! Do you have an equipment malfunction?”
“No… no I don’t.”
“Resume your objective!”
She nodded slowly, shaking her head and looking back at Ehjy as he also seemed to switch positions, the collection of dead citizens still strewn across the perilous street.
“Ikrisia!”
“Yes, sir!” she responded after readying her weapon. She quickly tried to analyze the situation and take out two soldiers approaching from above. There was a high-pitched noise emanating from her auditory receptors, however. It was growing louder and more uncomfortable. It even seemed to drown out the words of her equals. Maybe her equipment was malfuctioning after all. A quick glance above revealed the source: an errant shell dropping almost directly where she stood. Her equals had already run for cover, but she could only manage to run backwards quickly, covering her face with her arms when the shell exploded, sending her flying across the landscape and into a hollowed-out alcove.
Her eye windows were damaged. Her suit was damaged. When she tried to stand back up, she realized she couldn’t use her hands for leverage. Looking to her left and right revealed her arms had been vaporized up to the elbows. Gone. Completely gone.
She screamed in terror as the other supersoldiers came to her aid. Her head turned frantically as they entered her vision. Now there was trouble. She was without hands. She was invalid, and even she knew the fate of a useless supersoldier awaited her.
Ehjy squatted next to her and deactivated her voice communicator. “Better,” he said as she continued to writhe on the ground.
“Oh gosh, Ikrisia’s invalid.” Ivalsa shook her head. “Should we leave her here or shut her filter off to give her a quick death?”
“We need to dispose of her now!” Ehjy argued. “If they find her, they might use her technology against us.” He sighed. “I will place a grenade under her muzzle. I did this to Lis. You remember Lis Vivestra? He fought it, but in the end put the nation ahead of his own selfishness.”
“No.”
They turned to Todd as Ikrisia continued to emit tortured but muffled screams from within her suit. He held up a bloodied arm, barely recognizable as it hung by a plate in his plastic armor. “She ordered the bombardment. Her fate shall be the same as mine.”
“Todd!”
“She’s invalid! She must be disposed!”
“No!” He looked at the group of three before him as Ikrisia’s screams lessened. Finally, she was utilizing her past experiences on how to deal with pain, it seemed. A quick move switched off his communicator. “This is what they want us to do. Don’t you see? We cannot afford to lose another one of our numbers! The more we lose, the more we become controlled by our superiors. Should we leave her here, one day, it will be you. Or you. Or myself. We will order her return to base camp. I… will continue to fight upon my return.”
He gripped the broken body of Ikrisia and began pulling her from the battlefield. A small pause allowed him to pull her over his shoulder - no easy feat for a vulpine to carry one of their own. The soldier raced down the street to safer ground, minding the cargo he was toting.
“Invalid! I am invalid!” The explosion had luckily cauterized her arms, but as far as she was concerned, she was already dead.
“Do not feel invalid,” he reassured. “You will be mended. Have faith. I will see to it that you are upgraded.”