Chronicle:Star-crossed/second

Stuck with Union State and TTO soldiers...that was Ling's fate after the ill-fated mission. She thought she was going to die just like her other 2 buddies in the recon squad she was in but as if the mother phoenix herself had sent down this Union State soldier to come to her aid. She never got to say thank you but like he ever asked for it.

Ling had pretty much become the 10th unofficial member of that squad who had rescued her, their designated marksman so to speak. They were more lively than her previous colleagues as she missed them anyways. That was just life to her, just get through life's shit, no need to sulk on random petty things that will not matter in 1 or 2 years. These guys were too cheerful, all her life living as a product of the KShield she was taught from birth to serve and nothing more, the corporation's sigil burnt into the side of her right arm.

She couldn't even recall if she had a hobby, meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Baywood could draw things incredibly well. Several members could sing and cheer decently well yelling 'YEEEYEEE' sometimes when victorious, they call it the 'Union yell' she thinks. This was in stark contrast to the 2 now deceased members of her squad, they were like statues and talked when only it was needed. As the months went on she got to meet Avalonians from the 3rd Marine, a Barenian 'spooky' gunship crew, and...Arsytians...

Despite being allied together officially for this war, the Arsytians were less than pleased to meet her. She and a tank commander almost began stabbing each other to death if it wasn't for Sergeant Dylan's intervention. To think that around 30 years ago their fathers and mothers would be fighting each other.

Despite the stark difference between her new squadmates, there was 1 thing that kept bugging her, stuck in her mind she couldn't get rid of no matter how hard she tried. Ling couldn't stop thinking about Dylan, when he first kneeled down in front of her, she felt real compassion for the first time in what felt like forever. Whenever they had eye contact they would both be sucked into each other's gaze.

At first she thought she just found him attractive and wanted to bang him, she did have physical needs after all. Of course, she never asked him but as time went on it began to not feel like lust anymore, it turned from infatuation to craving him, from craving him to something she was unfamiliar with. Love and attachment was foreign thing to her, Ling never taught she would experience them but yet she was.

Unfortunately she denied it at every corner trying to bury it in her mind. She had no courage to tell him or even admit it to herself. Thus she kept a facade up, a cold heartless killing product built to do what she was manufactured to do when inside she was melting at the thought of him. Oh, how she wanted him to be hers, like a puppy. Alas, she would have to hopelessly fall in love without the possibility of ever achieving it plus the whole puppy thing was probably because of Fengese culture more so than a kink.

"Hey Ling you there? Wakey wakey." The voice of someone familiar broke her out of her thoughts. "H-huh where am I?" Looking around she found herself on top of an Avalonian APC sitting next to Dylan resting against the machine gunner's turret. "We're on that Avalonian APC that offered to be our ride? Dont you remember when our one got blown up?". Right right, their transport was destroyed in an ambush. A tandem charge rocket hit it resulting in the vehicle burning to a crisp.

"Oh...we're almost there?" Quickly she came back to her senses, she must have been zoned out while on the trip. Enough to not even hear the Avalonian classical music playing from a radio tucked in a crevice. "Yup, hey Emanuelle it's my turn with the radio!" While the 2 argue back and forth for the radio, Ling looks the other way watching as the surroundings get increasingly war-torn. The worst was it was all TTO forces, she even got front-row seats to Saessish soldiers rounding up prisoners at the roadside.

It Seems like Dylan got a hold of the radio tuning into the northwesternite radio channel, it was playing some old song. Something about it made her just want to nuzzle up against him, maybe because of the soothing voice of the singer or maybe it was because the song was about romance.

Room by room, Himinsstainath was turned into a hellhole of resistance. Blausland forces had decided to fight to the end for the city, they hid in the dark corners of rooms, strapped grenades to themselves, set up traps, and injected themselves with all kinds of drugs to make soldiers incredibly hard to kill. Between all this were civilians, and normal families trying to survive the carnage.

The squad had gotten off their transport and split into their 2 elements. Since bravo element had a designated marksman technically they were going to cover alpha element and the squad leader as they cleared nearby buildings. Gunfire erupted both far and near with coalition forces moving into the city. It was in an apartment Ling and Dylan found themselves, it had provided a great field of view for the surrounding area and group of houses the squad was trying to clear and was tall enough that they could be nested right in the middle so that it wasn't obvious where sniper fire was coming from.

Now they were alone together somewhat, the others were making sure some random Blauslander doesn't walk into the unit they were in. The 2 felt some sort of calm together having each other as company for the most part. Though they had a job to carry out, both found time to talk even if it was awkward. It was a slow burn of a conversation, talking about how different life was for the 2 of them growing up in polar opposite worlds.

"Our cultures are just that different, having a family that raises you here is rare for people like me. If anything KS consolidated is my parent, raised me since I was born." Suddenly she fires her rifle, the shot hits a Blauslander hidden in sight on one of the roofs, visible to them only and not those on the ground.

"Well at least we both don't have parents." He chuckled.

"Hm?" Ling was now curious, how could the 2 of them have similarities? So far she was convinced that they would be completely different.

He begins to explain while conducting yet another survey of the roofs around them. "Sorta, I do have parents but my dad died when I was like 1 from a car crash. My mom neglected me a lot after my dad died until my grandpa took me in but he died when I was 18. So pretty much I got no family but a bunch of graves now. I know it ain't the same but it's probably the most similar our lives are gonna get...OH SHIT MG TEAM!"

With milliseconds to spare Ling tackles Dylan using her body to push him to the ground quickly into cover, bullets fly everywhere through the window they were at. Dust, brick fragments, and anything in between used to construct their surroundings are kicked out. "Shit shit shit!!! squad lead we're under fire!" Corporal Sampson comes in alongside the grenadier while radioing the squad lead returning fire. A firefight ensues between them and the Blauslanders. Without warning the machine gun fire ends with gunshots coming from where the Blauslanders were, looks like some Barenian marines got to them.

"Dylan you alright?!" The grenadier rushes into the room quickly the 2 of them were in, "Oh what in the name of Kauriss?!" he shouts coming across the scene that had been created in the room. Despite the gunfire ending dust was still kicked up everywhere but slowly it settled and slowly Ling realized where she was...on top of Dylan...his face in between her breasts.

"MMMMPHHH?! MMMPHHUMMMM MMMMMMMM!!!!" Dylan's words were all muffled by Ling's breasts, quickly she got up off him to save whatever humility she had left with both their faces a shade of deep red. Dylan pushes himself to rest his back against the wall, rubbing his head because of the pain generated by the impact. "Kauris Ling don't smother me with your tits! Also, where is your gun?" Her head snaps to where her trusted rifle was only to see it was not there, she quickly looks out and sees it down on the ground below smashed to pieces. It must have fallen when she let go of it to save Dylan...

"Kauriss shit how the fuck do we get this open?" Before bravo element and Ling was a weapons crate, one that had been dropped off after a helicopter arrived to resupply them. Big bold black letters were written on the side of the crate reading 'USR-5'. The battle was won and Himinsstainath was in the hands of coalition forces, just like before the squad was held up in some random office space. "Try hitting the lock with the crowbar" Dylan Suggested. The group had removed the nails holding down the crate's lid but a lock kept them from uncovering the weapon inside. Sampson readies himself before giving the lock a wack with the crowbar only for the result to be a scratch.

"Fuck this." Dylan pulls his subordinate aside and uses his sidearm to shoot the lock off, the force of the bullets being too much for the hardy lock to bear no more. He opens the crate prying the wooden lid off to reveal a modernized U5 made to be a DMR packaged neatly in the crate. Attachments such as a high magnification optic, foregrip, bipod, and silencer lay at the side waiting to be assembled like one of those Votharian brick toy sets. "I assume you know how to put gun attachments together right?", Dylan kneels down and grabs an operating manual for the U5 tossing it at Ling which she surprisingly catches.

"Only thing I need to show you is how to operate this thing, but whatever I give you will be an extremely condensed crash course version of what we'd be learning usually." The rest of the members of the element look at each other silently asking him if they could go downstairs and rest up already. Dylan gives them the nod of approval and the rest head off to rest leaving all but him and Ling to do what they need. "So...what now?" She asks walking up to the crate and pulling the weapon out. "So how does it feel? Good? Or absolute dogshit?"

"Similar to what I had but...different...? I don't know how but it feels familiar yet unfamiliar when compared to Fengese weapons." Ling feels the gun in her hands, she puts it in various firing stances trying to get one correctly. Dylan helps her from behind, adjusting her arms into an optimal position where she could comfortably fire. "Get used to the kick, it's a battle rifle from the 50s."

Ling blushes feeling him practically wrap her arms around her almost like a hug, she'll definitely make sure to savor this moment while he teaches her how to use the rifle for it may be the only time they get this close physically...