Sharpe kept tossing his rifle’s barrel between his hands. He fidgeted uncomfortably as he spoke but powered through with a slight smile all the same.

“I’d only been on a few missions prior to this one. I’m not actually allowed to tell you how many. Anyway, at this time our armies didn’t have a foothold in Tajikistan. There was a lot of suspicion that hostile groups were operating out of the country but it was hard to get any solid proof. Despite this there were a lot of patrols around the border and eventually some into the outskirts of the country. The marines had overextended their patrol and gone and found themselves out of their area of operations, pinned down by some angry farmers with a lot of guns. We happened to be stationed nearby. This incident could have caused a lot of trouble if certain other nations had caught on to there being American soldiers pushing up into turf that wasn’t theirs. So, we got the job.”

Terra was making notes in her notebook; she stopped as Sharpe paused and started murmuring some numbers to herself.

“Wait, Sharpe when did this happen?” Terra stopped herself as another thought struck her mind.

“How old are you?”

It was a question she wished she’d asked herself from the beginning. The soldier looked young but that may have only been because he was clean-shaven. In this light and without his smile, Sharpe looked older. The soldier nodded.

“This all happened in 2021, six years ago… I was eighteen, soon to be nineteen.”

Terra steadily released a breath of relief. That made Sharpe twenty-four years old.

“My spotter Sam was sitting opposite me checking over her weapon,” Sharpe continued. “We’d all been briefed before we took off so there wasn’t much conversation. I’m telling you, the anticipation is worse than the fighting itself. When you’re out there under fire, you know what to do. Your body runs on instinct. It’s sitting in that helicopter with nothing but the beating sound of propeller blades to keep you company and the occasional nod from the guy next to you that gets you. The helicopter was winding and weaving as close to the ground as they could safely get to make us less of a target. The whole time we were sitting there twiddling our thumbs hoping someone with a rocket launcher wasn’t paying attention. At that altitude, in those mountains, you have no chance of walking away if it goes down.

“The pilot called out ‘Thirty seconds’ and everyone’s weapons started clicking; rounds got pushed into chambers and even the toughest sons of bitches held their breath as the chopper started slowing down. At ten seconds the helicopter reared up as it slowed to a halt; at five seconds it levelled out and we had just enough time to pull open the doors before the Boss started screaming ‘Go’. Before I had time to realise what was happening, I was on the ground, rifle raised, as the rest of the team dropped down around me. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and we started moving. The squad moved in a line at double pace. We approached the school. Sam and I went to the left, while the Boss led the rest of the team down to the marines. There was a lot of fire coming from that school. We were a good seven hundred metres out, which is a little too far for me to just start taking shots. There are too many variables at that range.”

Sharpe paused to catch his breath; his expression changed for a moment as he recalled something he didn’t seem to like.

“There was one muzzle flash that was different from the others. I knew he was an enemy sniper; his shots were all aimed with terrifying precision. He dropped one of the marines with a round that ricocheted off the base of this guy’s helmet. That was the last straw for me. I watched this soldier go down; he couldn’t have been any older than me. I was wearing an earlier version of this exo-suit you see me in now; back then they were still in the field-testing stage but it still helped me clear the distance to the school pretty quickly. The hardest part of that run was stopping.”

Sharpe ran a hand over his mouth as he took a moment to compose himself; his voice was more of a croak now.

“We can stop,” Terra said. “You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.”

Sharpe forced a smile and waved his hand in an effort to reassure Terra he was all right.

“Breaching a door is the most dangerous thing a soldier can do. Especially when you’re not familiar with the building. There are countless things that can go wrong. I grabbed one of the grenades from my belt, pulled the pin and started counting. The grenade should go off after five seconds. Five seconds is a long time for someone to get out of the way though so I waited until three seconds before I tossed the grenade through the door, which was now hanging off its hinges thanks to a kick from my suit.

“The explosion left my ears ringing and my head pounding, but I rushed into the doorway anyway. I fired at the silhouettes in the smoke, I didn’t bother to count them. I headed straight for the stairs, leaving a couple of flash grenades to roll down the corridors on either side of me as I went.”

Sharpe stopped and cleared his throat. He fiddled with his fingers nervously as he stuttered out the words.

“I-It was when I cleared the stairs… there was this boy, couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old.” The soldier looked a lot older to Terra all of a sudden as he sighed and composed himself. “He was holding a Kalashnikov AK-47 in his hands.”

“What did you do?” Terra asked cautiously, making sure to hold back her excitement about the tale she was being told. Sharpe pulled down his boonie hat over his eyes to hide them from Terra. He forced a smile but the tone of his voice was enough for her to go on.

“I shook my head. Back then I didn’t know much Arabic… I told him ‘No’. But he didn’t listen, and I did what I had to do. Not exactly heroic, though right?”

“Sharpe…” Terra started, “what you did saved the lives of those marines! All those men went back home to their families because of you!”

Sharpe lifted up his hat as he wiped his face with a firm hand.

“That’s one way of looking at it. Of course, they were never meant to be there in the first place, I got the ever-loving shit kicked out of me by the Boss because of what I did. But yeah, a bunch of men went back home to their families because of me. But because of me, a bunch of men who were just trying to protect their homes from the Western invaders didn’t go home to theirs…”

Terra instinctively and suddenly placed a hand over Sharpe’s as he fiddled with his weapon.

“My dad was a soldier too. But he doesn’t talk about his time in the military much. I think he must have done some things too but he’s still a hero to me, and that’s all that matters.”

Terra smiled. Sharpe responded with a low, warm chuckle.

“Yeah… maybe. Still, I hope that helps with your project, Miss… sorry, Terra.”

“Well, well, what’s all this then?”

Terra immediately withdrew her hand as Grace approached with a wide grin on her face and her arm through that of a soldier with silver hair. Sharpe flinched slightly when he noticed Zero with the student. Zero took a moment to introduce himself.

“Hi there, I’m Zero. Thanks for looking after Sharpe. I hope he didn’t bore you too much.”

Sharpe shot Zero an irritated glance.

“Not at all. He’s been a big help and a joy to talk to,” Terra replied.

Zero nodded a few times.

“Did he tell you about his really big…”

“Oi.”

“What?” Zero replied with a wide grin. “I was only gonna say gun.”

Zero motioned for Sharpe to follow him and the pair moved away from the girls to talk in private. Grace took Sharpe’s seat beside Terra. She had a very excited look on her face.

“Oh, get you. The English girl finds the English soldier,” she chirped.

Terra laughed, not taking Grace too seriously.

“I didn’t realise you were a grey fox kind of girl,” Terra teased.

Grace smiled, biting her lip and rolling her eyes playfully.

“He’s only twenty-six, some kind of genetic thing; all the boys in his family have it. I was paying more attention to the rest of him if I’m being honest.”

The two girls giggled quietly, keeping an eye on the soldiers to make sure they weren’t watching.

“So how was Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome?” Grace said, now forcing Terra into the spotlight. “I’ve never seen you smile so much around a guy before.”

Terra pondered the thought. She couldn’t deny that Sharpe had an effect on her. Her heart had been racing during their conversation, leaving her feeling very heated up.

“It’s been a really long time since I’ve let a boy into my life, I’m not sure if I’m ready for all that again.”

Terra watched the soldiers talk for a moment. Zero was very emotive and animated with his movements but had a wide happy smile on his face, while Sharpe stood very still, listening with only a slight grin on his face.

“Honey, that there ain’t no boy,” Grace interjected. “That’s a man!”

“Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him,” Terra concluded.

Terra kept watching the two soldiers. They were speaking too quietly from too far away for her to hear, but she did notice Zero push a finger to his ear. Probably to touch a microphone she couldn’t see. The two soldiers’ expressions changed and they made their way back over to the girls. Zero muttered something to Sharpe with a wide grin that made the sniper fall back half a step and shake his head. Zero stepped forward and bowed to the two girls. He spoke with a highly exaggerated British accent that made Sharpe cringe.

“I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, fair maidens, but it would appear we are needed elsewhere. But fear not for we shall reunite later this afternoon to escort you to your chambers.”

Zero moved off first; Sharpe watched him for a moment as he started to jog then shook his head at the two girls.

“Sorry, running joke,” he said before turning and moving at a similar pace.

“He’s a bit of a goofball,” Terra mumbled.

“He can be as goofy as he wants with abs that hard,” Grace responded.

The two girls laughed together as young women do. Grace revelled in the chance to talk to Terra about the opposite sex, since she’d never shown any interest in the guys from their classes. Terra felt her phone start to vibrate in her pocket. She pulled out the device and looked at Billy’s face now appearing on the screen. Terra accepted the call and put the phone to her ear.

“Terra! Hey, you better get back to the boarding gate quick!”

“Billy, what’s wrong?”

“Trust me,” Billy said, completely unable to hold his composure. “You will really want to see this.”

Terra and Grace made their way back to their boarding gate. Sharpe and Zero were already there. The two soldiers stood near the window Terra had been looking out of earlier. They were watching a man talking to Boss and, strangely, Professor Marcus. Billy emerged from the gathering crowd and rushed over to talk to the girls. Terra looked around as he approached; there were a number of other soldiers dotted around all wearing the same Sons of Odin uniform.

“Terra, are you blind? Look!” Billy forcefully whispered.

He pointed towards a third man speaking to her professor and Boss. Terra had been too focused on trying to pick out the soldiers to realise who her teacher had been talking to.

Terra looked into the warm face and crystal-blue eyes of Nathan Kebal. She held her hands over her mouth to muffle the excited sounds that followed.

“No wonder these guys are packing so much heat,” Billy commented.

“What’s he doing at an airport? With that much money I’d have my own private runway!” someone in the crowd murmured to another.

Terra’s attention was grabbed as a soldier pushed past them through the crowd again dressed in the same uniform as Sharpe and Zero. Sharpe himself had also relocated and was now slowly patrolling up and down the long glass window, tapping his finger on the trigger guard of his rifle.

“I don’t get it, is he a musician or something?” Grace asked. She spoke loudly enough to attract a few displeased looks from the people in the crowd around them.

“He’s the man who turned clean-burning eco fuel into a reality. Nobody’s too sure where he got the original investment or why he chose to set up his first factory here, but he changed the economy of the whole continent. They say in the next twenty years oil will be completely replaced within the First World because of him.”

Terra stopped herself when she realised she was rambling. Grace shrugged, unimpressed.

“There are also a few rumours flying around that he’s immortal,” Billy added.

Grace gave him a confused look. Terra rolled her eyes.

“It means he’ll live forever.”

“I know what it means!” Grace shot back with indignation.

The students weren’t the only ones who had taken notice. The press showed up. A pair of older soldiers moved to block the reporter and her cameraman, but were stopped by Kebal. The reporter was a powerful-looking dark-haired woman who held a wireless microphone in her hand.

“Mr Kebal, do you have anything to say regarding the terrorist attack?”

Kebal spoke with a low, booming voice that radiated with authority.

“I do not believe ‘terrorist’ is the correct term; this attack was clearly an act of aggression by another nation. I will be talking to the Minister of Defence and NATO officials to confirm the situation. Until then I’d suggest everyone stay calm and not jump to conclusions.”

A low rumbling echoed through the building as a jet aircraft flew overhead. The soldiers changed positions again. This time they moved with more urgency; Zero directed a few men with hand signals. Terra meanwhile was too focused on Nathan Kebal as he continued to answer questions from the reporter.

“I thought he was a businessman; I didn’t know he had a hand in the country’s politics?” Billy questioned.

“He’s had a hand in it since he saved the country’s economy. He has more power here than the prime minister. I thought you knew that?” Terra answered.

“Guys!” Grace mumbled. Terra and Billy turned around to see Grace facing the long glass window as a sleek black military attack helicopter screeched past just a few feet off the runway.

“Wow, I didn’t realise the local military had KA-52s in their arsenal,” Billy proclaimed.

Without missing a beat, as Billy finished his point, a second helicopter descended from above and started hovering easily over the runway across from them. The machine was painted completely black except for a single red star on the side of its fuselage.

“Billy… I don’t…” Terra started.

Two pods on opposing wings of the helicopter containing high-calibre machine guns burst into life. The helicopter swept from side to side spraying the terminal with glowing tracer shells. People screamed and ran for cover, but there was little that could protect them. Glass shattered, the concrete floor was torn up and bits of meat were forcefully removed from people in large bloody chunks as the bullets mercilessly tore the airport’s visitors to pieces.

The helicopter pulled off as the soldiers that survived the attack returned fire. Rifle rounds bounced and sparked off the helicopter’s thick armour forcing the pilot to leave. Despite the helicopter’s departure, the screams and gunshots remained as people panicked to escape the chaos.

Terra’s legs gave out from under her; she dropped to her knees as her body became overwhelmed with shock. The right side of her face was hot from blood. She put a hand to her cheek to feel the wound but found only her bloodstained skin. The blood wasn’t hers. She looked down at her bloody hands as her senses began to return; her ears filled with the sounds of the carnage around the terminal. There was more shooting coming from further down the terminal, only it was more ragged and varied. There were two sides shooting at each other now.

Sharpe appeared from the chaos to kneel down in front of Terra.

He had to yell over the sounds of the gunfire; the soldiers were now shooting at something to her right. Terra tried to turn to see but was pulled back by Sharpe.

“Don’t look, okay. Just run that way!”

He pointed to the exit on her left. Terra’s gaze fell to her right as the thought set in that her friends had been standing beside her when the shooting started. Sharpe forced her head back around towards the exit.

“Listen to me, you run and you do not look back!” Sharpe screamed.

“Sharpe, get the fuck over here now!” a voice yelled from the right.

Terra got to her feet and started to run. As she stepped off she felt something slam into her lower leg. She fell to the ground and her head hit the blood-coated floor.

Terra’s vision became a blur; her head ached from the impact and she felt a searing pain in her right leg just below the knee. The horrifying realisation began to set in: she had been shot. The frightened young woman ran her hands over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding but instead she felt only searing pain. When Terra saw what had happened to Grace, she forgot all about the pain. What had once been her best friend now lay limply on the ground. Her body was littered with shrapnel and blood oozed from multiple wounds. Her chest had been torn open by a shell from the helicopter and the right side of her head was completely missing.

As Terra raised her hands to cover her mouth a small brass object landed beside Terra, and then another caught her in the face. Terra looked up. The soldiers had formed a staggered line and were firing at something down the terminal, each of them crouched on one knee.

A few wounded civilians tried to stagger between them but were being cut down by returning gunfire. Ahead of Terra and the Son’s of Odin men was a new set of soldiers. They wore completely black uniforms with gas masks covering their faces and were firing small machine guns into the crowds, slaughtering anyone unfortunate enough to cross their sights. Terra felt a pair of hands reach in under her armpits; she leant her head back and caught sight of Billy. He too was covered in blood and was trying to pull her away from the fighting.

Sharpe knelt beside them, shuffling back every few seconds to stay closer to Terra and Billy. He adjusted his aim slightly as he moved between targets. His rifle was deafeningly loud, the weapon making a distinctive bass-like sound with every pull of the trigger.

Terra suddenly fell back. Her head didn’t hit the floor, it hit something softer. Terra rolled over and saw that she had landed on Billy’s lifeless body. She didn’t scream; she wasn’t sure if she could anymore. Her throat had closed up and her body refused to move. She tried to push herself up to a crawl but was met by another of the black uniform soldiers. This one was running in behind Sharpe and the others, raising his weapon to her. The soldier’s mask cracked open along with his skull in a haze of red mist. Another hand hit Terra, this time pushing her back down. She managed to turn her head to see Sharpe firing his weapon in the direction of the mysterious soldiers. Several more soldiers ran through the exit to meet Sharpe’s rifle as they tried to cut off the escape for anyone inside the terminal.

Terra’s head felt heavy, her mouth tasted of iron and her body was slowly losing more and more feeling. When the helicopter returned Terra simply watched through her bloody and blurred vision. Sharpe turned back to the glass window in a futile effort to defend himself and Terra from the helicopter, but it was far too late now. A stream of rockets leapt from the helicopter’s wings; they flew over the heads of Terra and Sharpe and exploded off the wall behind them. The last thing Terra remembered, before everything went black, was a wall of flame racing towards her.