File 8.4 - Monotony of Violence

A warm comforting hum of the reactors filled the bay. The five machines sang together building into a single unified melody. It was a thunderous and boisterous song charging quickly through the lines. The promise of peace dangled at the end, unable to be reached with each refrain.

Cal stared at the Skins as they neared the operational start. He stood up on the shoulders of his Peng while mentally going over the mission. Jumping into the cockpit, the operation time flashed before him. Still plenty of time remained for him to go through system checks.

Chatter filled the tight cockpit as he heard Pol complaining. “These missions are getting boring. The demons lost their bite.”

“I will admit it’s strange we haven’t seen anything more out of them from any of our attacks,” Noinel commented, feeling a little bit of an agreement with Wells. He didn’t have his eagerness to fight the demons like he did, but found the missions lacking and off putting. “We know that giant black Skin is still out there.”

“Damnit! We’re going to leave before I can have my revenge!”

“We all want revenge for Rivers’ death, Pol. But orders are orders, everything we have has to be delivered back to HQ before the operation. If they have nothing more to show we can’t be wasting time down here.”

“But we’ve still got two weeks to the Op, we can spare some time demon hunting.”

“I’m not sending anyone into the enemy’s den. We’ll get our chance for revenge during the next operation.”

“Making me wait…”

A beep went off in Cal’s machine signaling the end of their conversation. “Enough chatter, time to launch!”

“Another exciting day of killing drones.”