Beep beep beep

An alarm rang in a pitch black room before the lights came on, revealing an older man with mostly grey hair sleeping in bed.

"Sargent Major Williams, the current time is zero five hundred hours," an automated voice rang out.

Beep beep beep

The man sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Acknowledged, turn off alarm," he ordered groggily. A high pitched chime rung in acknowledgment. "Another day, another pointless battle."

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The current year was thirty-one twenty two based on the current imperial calendar. After the third world war a little over a thousand years ago, a majority of the worlds governments were in shambles or completely nonexistent. In the wake of this power vacuum the Empire emerged, unifying many of the nations with still functioning governments. Shortly after most of the countries without government also joined. The few remaining nations that refused to join were left alone for several years as the empire rebuilt cities and the people prospered. Those outliers eventually joined on their own accord, or the people overthrew the government after being frustrated about the years of poverty.

The first emperor was seen as a saint, a god that descended to earth that brought only peace and prosperity to humanity. Even though there were many conspiracy theories that the emperor had actually instigated the war so that he could swoop in and take over, few could complain much about the outcome. The term "third world" practically disappeared as even the former third world countries were developed to a level of even the first world, with the only exceptions being a few scattered towns and villages that didn't welcome the progress. And as long as they stayed peaceful the Empire didn't get anymore involved with them than necessary.

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Sergeant Major Williams washed up and dawned a gray uniform before he walked down the ship halls to the briefing room to go over the next mission with his team. Williams was forty six years old with twenty nine years of service in the earth marine corps. He didn't enter into a combat job, he joined as a tank mechanic. However, through a series of events where his bravery not only led to the saving of many lives at the risk of his own, but assured victory against the attacking enemy force, he was moved into a more so combat role in the Special Forces.

As he walked he eventually came to a window to see the blue-grey void of traveling through hyperspace.

Five hundred years ago humanity left the comfort their home star system and joined the galaxy as a space faring race. The first four hundred fifty years were nothing short of underwhelming for humanity, as they had yet to encounter any other intelligent races. They did however find dozens of star systems with either habitable worlds or ones that could be terraformed into habitable. With the desire for expansion, the empire established colonies on these worlds.

However fifty years ago that changed when they made first contact with an alien race. They were an insectoid race, and it took months before proper communication could be achieved. They were a greedy race that traded for anything of value. It wasn't the best first race to encounter, but peaceful relations were easily established since humanity had many worlds rich with natural resources, and the alien race had plenty of advanced technology to trade.

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Williams arrived at the briefing room but stood by the door instead of walking inside. There he stood with his back against the wall until...

"Morning Sargent Williams."

Williams turned to face the source of the voice and saluted. "Good morning captain."

The Captain then moved his coffee to his left hand and returned the salute. The Captain was a young man in his late twenties with blonde hair and a relatively muscular build. He wore the same uniform as Williams except for two gold bars on his shoulders.

"Your hair is looking a little long, it looks about time for a trim," Williams commented.

The Captain ran his free hand through his hair. It was significantly longer than Williams', just barely within regulations.

"I'll be returning back to earth for a celebration after our successful invasion here, I'd like to be able to blend in. My father is stepping down finally so it's time for me to inherit his title."

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With the creation of the Empire also came the return of the noble classes. Nobles were also a majority of the officers in the military. Commoners like Williams did have a chance to become officers, but most nobles usually made sure something like that never happened. Williams himself had received multiple medals and probably could have made it, but his weak social skills made it hard to fall in favor of nobles that held high enough rank.

"I see, in that case we'll have a new lieutenant I presume?"

"Yeah, some new lieutenant fresh from training. But don't worry I'll tell him to not ignore you." The Captain chuckled. "Hell, I'd probably be dead by now if I didn't take your advice."

That was no exaggeration. Williams had dealt with many officers since he joined special forces, and the senior enlisted he had served under had ways to deal with arrogant officers. It always started with an injury, then a near death experience, and if they still were too arrogant to listen to those with greater experience they usually would die on a mission. Williams learned the lessons from his superiors, and now that he was in their position, they have fixed many arrogant officers before they got themselves killed. William justified those decisions by telling himself that he was saving his team's lives from idiots.

Williams sighed and pressed a button beside the door, causing it to slide open before he walked in.

"Room attention!" He called out with authority.

Immediately ten men stood ramrod straight as their captain entered the room. The men were of varying ages and ranks, but they were all brothers, a bond forged in the fires of battle.

"As you were, take a seat," the Captain said as he arrived at the opposite side of a large screen. "Our mission today marks the beginning of the invasion of our enemy's homeworld. The target," the screen activated and an alien building appeared. "One of four planetary shield generators. Our mission is to disable, not destroy. Sergeant Major, please take it from here."

With that Williams pushed his personal feelings aside and proceeded with the briefing.

Thirty years ago humanity faced their first war with another species when they launched an attack on five of the Empires outer colonies. William was getting ready to graduate highschool at the time, but as soon as he heard about the attack he knew he wanted to help. He enlisted and left for basic training only days after graduating, and joined as a tank mechanic, since he already was well aware of his own mechanical aptitude. The war then meant something to him, humanity was attacked without provocation and he felt it was his duty to help.

During his first assignment off world he was assigned in support of a base established on one of the enemy's colonies. While there the base was attacked and on the verge of being overrun. Despite his lack of experience he came up with an idea. He took control of one of the functioning tanks that no one else managed to get to, loaded it full of munitions, and set it on a collision course with the enemy forces. They managed to disable it before anything happened, but he had rigged it for remote detention. Once there were enough of the enemies soldiers around it, he triggered the explosion. The explosion was so large it disoriented the enemy force and allowed the imperial forces to regroup and take control of the battle. After which he was promoted and reassigned to a special forces unit as a tactical engineer, specializing in sabotaging enemy facilities.

He was proud of what he did at the time, even as his actions helped in the capture of their homeworld. If everything stopped there he would have had a military career he would have been proud of. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. During the war the emperor died and his son took the throne. The new emperor used this war as an excuse and filled the media with propaganda to promote his new war, conquering the known galaxy. Since then five races have been conquered in this seemingly endless war, where the soldiers weren't even permitted to leave when their tour of duty was up.

"We've done missions like this before, we know what to do, so let's get it done and all come back here in one piece. HOORAH!"

"HOORAH!"

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"RELOADING!" One of them shouted as he ducked behind some cover.

They infiltrated the facility and reached their targets, but were discovered as they were making their escape.

BOOM

A grenade exploded, eliminating the majority of the enemy in front of them and leaving the survivors in shell shock, making them easy to kill.

"Anyone injured?" The Captain asked.

"Only a flesh wound on Parker's arm, but I already patched him up," the medic replied.

"Good to hear. Williams, how's our escape route looking?"

William closed his eyes for a few seconds. "They're setting up a defensive position about two hundred feet down. It'll be hell to break through."

"Damn it," the Captain cursed.

"I see another way. There's a hall fifty feet down and to the left that will take us to a window. We could jump out there. It won't line us up as well with the evac point, but if we haul ass I think we can make it in time."

"Any resistance to get there?"

"Everything is shifting constantly, but so far minimal."

"Alright let's go, you lead the way."

Williams led them down the hall, meeting little resistance, then out the window. Once the last of them were on the ground a series of spot lights were on them.

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Huff huff huff

Williams was breathing heavily as he leaned against a tree while trying to catch his breath. The enemy was waiting for them. As soon as they were all out they showed themselves, and revealed they had fallen into a trap. Thanks to their snipers who were able to create a diversion the team was able to break through the enemy troops and make a run for it. Unfortunately the enemy didn't give up easily, and proceeded to chase them. Since they were shooting, the snipers gave away their positions, and the entire hill top was carpet bombed, destroying everything. As for the remainder of the team, they dropped one by one until only Williams survived. He didn't approve of this war, but he took pride when the explosives went off and disabled the shield generator, making the mission a success.

His breathing had become more labored and his strength nearly exhausted. He took so many shots that his armor was severely damaged, leaving a hole in his back that wouldn't stop bleeding. He knew he was nowhere near the extraction point, not like he even knew where he was now.

The captain's last order was to run, to not even worry about the extraction point if it meant surviving. This of course made sense since the invasion was no doubt already underway, and it was only a matter of time until imperial forces would arrive. However, that was too far away now. One by one they fell while returning fire, trying to use the alien forest as cover until only Williams was left.

The display in his helmet already told him they were all dead, but he still wished he could go back for them. He had lost many brothers and sisters in battle, but they were always able to recover their bodies to take with them. This left a foul taste in his mouth, but it didn't matter, he knew he wasn't going to make it out alive either.

An energy blast whizzed by his head, taking out a chunk of the tree.

"THANKS FOR BEING A LOUSY SHOT!" He yelled back as he dropped to one knee and turned around to return fire.

He was low on ammo, out of grenades, and his vision was becoming blurry due to blood loss. This was where he was making his last stand. Thanks to his laser sight and the display in his helmet it was still easy to hit his targets, though it did take a little longer to aim. All he had to do was see a red light then pull the trigger. One, two, three down before his rifle was out of ammo. He dropped it and switched to his side arm and continued firing, but still the enemy continued to advance. After a few more shots his cover exploded from artillery fire, and he was sent flying, landing on his back with a large chunk of his armor missing from his chest and blood pouring out.

"If there is a god, I have no excuse for my actions. I joined the military to protect my species, but somewhere along the line that stopped, and the mission became perverted. I could have done something, I could have left right away, but I stayed with my eyes covered until it was too late to leave. Maybe if I was smarter or paid better attention I could have seen what was happening, but I didn't. I don't ask for my forgiveness, but please don't punish those kids from my team, they weren't given a choice. They were forced to join. Let them find peace, and I'll take their punishment. I'll suffer so they can be happy."

The next thing he knew a reptilian alien was standing over him with his gun pointed at him. It made some noises that almost sounded like croaking mixed with some clicks, then a different combination of the same noises came from another source.

"I guess that's their language."

Willams closed his eyes and smiled, he didn't need to understand them to know what would happen next. He then for a split second heard the sound of the weapon discharging, then nothing.

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"Congratulations, it's a boy," an older woman announced.

"What? Is this my life flashing before my eyes before I actually die?" Williams asked himself in confusion.

"He's beautiful," a young woman said, as he felt himself being handed off.

He tried to open his eyes, but not only was it too bright, but his vision was blury.

"Look John, he had your nose," the woman said.

"I don't know, maybe it's because of my scar, but I don't see it," a man replied.

"Wait, my father wasn't named John, and he definitely didn't have a scar on his nose!"

"Men," the older woman said with a sigh. "Have you thought of a name yet?"

"We have," the younger woman said. "Samuel."

"What in the fuck is going on here?"