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The Soldier, Sunny Side Up - Part of the Bag of Beginnings

This is the story of Corporal Jash Masterson, and how he survived world war 3.
A Smoothie of Comrades-

I was tucked into my bunk when the first bombs fell. The ground trembling around me, I heard loud noises from within the compound as some of the ceiling caved in. I flung myself from my bunk, and legged it down the corridors. The corridors I knew so well, rushing past me as I charged forwards, the piercing wails of the alarms cutting through the chaos. I was one of the first to make it to the kit room, a few others made it in before the ceiling collapsed outside the door. The hardened walls and roof of the kit room, made us all feel better. In the room with me were; Captain David Hams, Lieutenant Laura Barnsley, Corporal Gregory Smithers and Madam Cornblower, one of the Compounds cooks. We all stayed silent for the first five minutes, except for the still screaming alarms, recovering from the sudden start, breathing heavily. I stood up and made my way to one of the cases and activated it. The large plexiglass coffin slid out of the wall and opened to allow access to the suit inside. The mechanical arms attached to the suit lifted it out of the case and placed it on the floor facing the wall. I then turned the valve on the back of the suit, which then opened with a hydraulic hiss. I had gotten into these suits so many times during training, but never until now did the action feel so sombre. As the back of my suit sealed up behind me some of the others got into suits of their own. The suit booted up and made the oh-so memorable “tu du du” as the HUD flickered up. I went through the pre-flight checklist, and everything seemed to be working fine. While I waited for the others to suit up, I went to Madam Cornblower “You Ok?” I asked her, my voice sounding robotic through the suit, she just nodded, seeming still a little rattled. I walked over to the alarms speaker and pulled it off the wall, the suit making it easy. There was a collective sigh as the alarm ceased. Everyone but Madam Cornblower was ready now, markers hovering above their heads. “Shall we Sync up?” asked Lieutenant Barnsley, “Sure, good idea” Replied the captain, we stood next to each other in a circle and tapped each other. The Sync was a kind of link between the suits, which helps for squads, it gives more information about squadmates conditions and also helps keep track of each other while maintaining an open comm link. I opened the weapon racks, and attached the railguns to my comrades backs, followed by the launchers to even us out, Smithers attached mine. We also had guns built into the arms of the suits, but they were more for emergencies, just like the blades. Smithers and myself had to operate the manual override on the outer door, even with the suits it took time. As it opened the dry air of the outside rushed in, bringing dust and sand in with it. The sun was rising and shone directly into the kit room, outside the enemy had units covering the skies like a swarm of flies, my HUD read no friendly units. We stayed hunched in the doorway, watching for an opening. There was a loud explosion, from across the base, and the units in the way darted towards it. This was our chance, we punched the throttle and accelerated up and out. For the first few minutes we were safe, our emissions had not been detected yet, we soared close to the ground, flying between the dunes, I had a quick look in my rear-view and all I could see of our base, was smoke and craters. Suddenly, we all pinged locks, as enemy missiles headed for us, we popped chaff and flares while scattering away from each other. I banked around, the missile following my every move, and headed towards the enemy ship. If there was one thing I learnt in my training, it was that Kahrtz ships are particularly weak against their own munitions. I charged towards it, dodging out of the way of its turret fire, slowly making my way towards the open hangar doors.

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