Dark curtains of rain fell from gray boiling clouds onto the mud caked battlefields of the besieged planet Krillian. The percussive crack of artillery mixed with the explosive sound of thunder as gale force winds buffeted the last human stronghold on the planet. Thousands of Syn, slick with mud and hungry poured through a hole in the outer wall as hot beams of plasma sliced through their swarming multitudes.

  “This isn’t looking good Lieutenant Anson,” a soldier commented hoarsely as he adjusted his monocular scope.

  “When has it ever,” Anson brooded. She threw aside her visored helmet and began to unbuckle her bulky armored shoulder pads. The name above the barcode on her gray nano-fiber battle tunic read Adelaide Anson. She let her holstered pistol and ammo belt splash against the wet concrete ground. Water dripped from her short pulled back hair on to her pale resolute face.

  “Lieutenant?” the soldier stammered. She looked at him with fierce gray eyes.

  “I intend to die the way I want. Is that a problem?” Adelaide barked.

  “No sir.”

  Adelaide pressed herself against the rain-streaked concrete railing and watched the lower levels be overwhelmed in a cacophony of hissing shrieks and bloody screams.

  “Secure me a line. I’m going down there,” Adelaide said. As the soldier wordlessly complied Adelaide grabbed her stainless-steel pike and waited for his thumbs up. It was a simple weapon born of desperation, but it couldn’t run out of ammo.

  “Good luck Lieutenant.”

  Adelaide was already over the wall. Rain splashed against her face as she slid down the concrete embankment into a pack of Syncline. Slamming ankle deep into the mud Adelaide ducked to avoid the slashing claws of an attacking Syn. Gritting her teeth, Adelaide spun her pike around smacking another Syn as it lunged at her. She skewered the next Syn against the tip of her pike. A geyser of blue blood poured from the wound as she quickly leveraged her weapon out of its chest with a crack of its shattered carapace. Lightning illuminated the savage blood smeared expression on her face. Gripping the pike she turned her hate filled focus at the other Syn now running towards her. If she was going to die then she was going to take as many as should could on her own terms.

  “That’s Lieutenant Anson!” a voice cheered. Adelaide didn’t hear them. Rain cloaked tears streamed down her blood smeared face as she pulled her pike from another Syn’s limp feathered form. She thought of her father as she ran headlong into another Syn. It screeched as she dodged its attack, spinning around fast enough to thrust her spear through its back. It would never be enough she raged. They would pay for taking everything from her. That hatred alone kept her alive. When a Syn threw her down into the mud Adelaide laughed. She pulled a knife and imbedded it in the Syn’s beaked face as it snapped at her. Escaping as it writhed on the floor Adelaide lunged for her pike and finished it off with murderous satisfaction. There was a moment of calm. Soaked in blood and rain Adelaide stood alone with corpses as she looked up at a shuttle screaming down through a break in the clouds.

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  “What the hell?” she exclaimed as more ships flitted triumphantly through the sunlight corridor now illuminated the fortress like some heaven sent sign. Buffeted by wind, a pair of ground attack bombers blasted craters in the Syn advance to clear a path for the shuttles to land. Formations of low flying fighters kept the Syn at bay with barrages of flashing Laser fire. Possessed by sudden hopeful excitement Adelaide began to run towards the nearest shuttle. With a hydraulic hiss the cabin doors slid open and a fleet marine gestured towards dry the spacious interior. Surviving soldiers began to clamber in.

  “Everybody in! Krillian is being evacuated.”

  “Evacuated?” Adelaide asked as she climbed up into the cabin with the other soldiers. “Why would we evacuate if the fleet broke through the Syn blockade?”

  “We didn’t defeat the Syn blockade Lieutenant Anson,” The marine explained. “The Syncline abandoned Krillian along with every other position they held on the front. Nobody knows what the hell is going on, but SMCAF High Command won’t waste an opportunity to consolidate our forces.”

  “So, we’re abandoning Krillian too?” Adelaide cried in frustration. She looked back at the body strewn battlefield and found herself unwilling to leave.

  “I’m sorry Lieutenant, but orders are orders. Now get your ass buckled into a seat.”

  Dripping wet with rain and blue Syn blood Adelaide strapped into one of the bench seats and braced for orbital accent. She ignored the strange looks and looked out the portholes as the shuttle burst through a sun streaked cloudscape and back up into blue black space where a pair of frigates where waiting alone in orbit. The Syn had indeed vanished. Shuttles flew back and forth uncontested.

  “You’re her, aren’t you?” the soldier across from her asked.

  “Oh please,” another soldier growled.

  “I knew it. I’d heard you were here on Krillian with us, but I never believed that stories until now,” the first soldier said.

  “What stories,” Adelaide asked as she continued to stare out the window.

  “That you once killed a Syn with your bare hands,” another soldier interjected. Adelaide grunted disinterest.

  “That’s why they call you the Daughter of Devils.”

  “That’s what they call me now?” Adelaide acknowledged with a frown. She stared at the blood smeared monster looking back at her from the reflection in the window and chuckled. It was a shame the Syn could never fear her. The shuttles drifted up into the waiting docking bay one by one before the frigates swung around and vanished into the depths of folded space.