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' time. 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 absolutely 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 never 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.

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, Mooresstood 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. In between all this was civilians, 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 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.