The sergeant stared into the remaining smoke, wondering if any of his shots had hit the retreating Walren’s back. Grimacing, he turned back to the body before him, bending down to retrieve the soldier’s dog tags. Daragin. He added it to the cluster of tags hanging around his neck. Those that had died under his command. The clump grew bigger every day. The group of dog tags swayed, and he glanced some of the names. Felamore, Daragin, and underneath them all hung his own, Zarock. No time to mourn for the dead now, thought Zarock, turning and hoisting himself up and over the trench wall. One of the drop ships was just now landing in front of him, rear door lowering before its landing gear hit the mud. Zarock could still hear gunfire, but now it was coming from above, as Saurian gunships covered their comrades’ retreat, raining spent casings down into the now lifeless trenches. Zarock calmly strode up the ramp and took a seat in the ship, shouting over his squad’s com channels for any left alive to join him. He scowled when only one reply came, and his mood was only improved slightly when a second man belatedly joined the other soldier on the ship. Only two remained of his squad, and he wouldn’t be able to retrieve the tags of those that had died. He quickly ran through his ever changing mental list of all those that had served under him, and subtracted these two survivors. Charak, Daragin, Tossigoll, Felamore, Bradoc, and Fentis.  Those were the men that had died today. Finally we are leaving this God forsaken planet, finally the killing can stop. Zarock grimaced when the doors began to close, the ship not even half full. He knew he should offer some words of encouragement to his downtrodden squad mates, but it seemed all hope in him had died long ago on this muddy hell. Instead, he stared out the window at the ground growing more and more distant as the drop ship rose up through the atmosphere, the gunships following closely behind. He would wager that more than one of those ships had been forced to leave empty. Turning from the window, he pulled out a small holoprojector from his belt pouch, the only personal possession he had taken with him from his home planet of Besin. He tapped the display and a projection of his family glowed to live in the air in front of him. His pregnant wife, Satika. Of course the child would have been born now, and Zarock could not wait to meet him. When I am finally home I will settle down with my family and never tough a gun again, recited Zarock in his head for the thousandth time. Satika and I will move to that biodome in the flats that we have always dreamed of, and we can get a pet for the child and- Zarock’s fantasizing was cut short as the ship jostled violently, his now rare smile evaporating off his face. He quickly gazed out the window through passing smoke and saw bright beams of red and purple streaking across the blackness of space above them. The Walren were waiting for them in orbit. Hopefully there was still a mother ship left to dock with so they could warp away from this place.

            Zarock did not feel relief when the mother ship did come into sight, escorted by several cruisers and destroyers, dwarfed by the thousands of Walren battleships letting off shells from miles away. One of the shells once again narrowly missed their shuttle and the ship jolted again. One of the other soldiers began to unbuckle his harness hastily, simultaneously groping for the parachute under his seat.

            “What the hell are you doing soldier?!” Zarock blared.

            The soldier jumped out of his seat and stumbled on the shaky ground, slinging the parachute over his shoulders. “Gotta get out of here, were gonna get blown out of the sky.”

            Zarock gestured angrily at the distressed soldier, “Are you out of your mind? We are almost out of atmosphere, the second you left the ship we will be burned to ash!”

            The soldier either ignored him intentionally or was too distressed to understand. He fumbled the parachute clasp together and stumbled rapidly towards the rear hatch.

            “Don’t do it soldier, you will kill us all.” Said Zarock dangerously, drawing his sidearm.

            The soldier took one last crazed look at him and lunged for the release lever.