As I stared at my body, my mind traveled back to those last few minutes of my life. We had been at war, with what we had thought was a ruthless enemy for over eighty years. We called them the Mantis, as they looked a lot like praying mantises you could find back on earth, with an extra pair of arms, which ended in a pair of three-fingered hands, below the scythe-like blades. On this day one of their ships had breached the system I was in, we were far from the front lines, but there it came. It was not very long before a type of ship we had never seen before followed it through thetransit area. This new ship started to attack the mantis ship, as well as our ships.


    Soon more strange ships entered the area and a slaughter of our troops began. I was sent to check out where the Mantis ship crashed and found much to my surprise a ship of mostly civilians, even a few humans, with many mantis grubs and even a few human children. One of the soldiers, different from most I had seen, came towards me and bowed its upper body to me.


    "Greetings, Captian Jack Salker of the Terran Federation Marines, I am Tklch, Royal Guardian to our queen. We ask for asylum and aid at this time."


    I was stunned for a few seconds, the landing of one of the new ships snapped me out of it. I watched as creatures that looked like giant millipedes, with the heads of a rhinocerosstarted charging out of it. A few soldiers and mantis warrior fell, and I stared in horror as the new enemy started to eat the dead. Soon a flood of enemies was headed towards us. I ordered all units to open fire, but most of our munitions just bounced off their carapace.


    "Attention TF Marines, switch to package Delta," I ordered into comms, as I dropped my cannons, and from somewhere else on the planet new ones came down to thunk into their spots, which caused my armor to stumble a step forward. The weapons of Delta package were new and experimental energy weapons, a plasma cannon on the left, and a particle beam cannonon the right.


    The enemy came in waves for several hours, before there were five of the largest of the enemy left. Our reinforcements were starting to landwhen I heard a high pitched scream behind me. When I turned to look, I saw several children and grubs (the child stage of the Mantis) on the field a large milloroscharged at them. I overrode my suit''s safeties and charged in between them. The horn went through my chest, the pain almost caused me to black out while one of its claws cut into my left leg, the claws barely paused in the armor. The armor clamped my leg to keep the blood loss down, then due to the horn which pierced my heart, it set up a bypass in most of the major blood vessels. I grit my teeth and drew my swords, the metal was a deep cherry red from the heat, which had built up due to overriding the safeties, and stabbed it in the eyes. With a sound of a thousand fingernails on chalkboards, the enemy screeched and lifted it''s head with me still on the horn into the air.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Armor, set fusion power core to overload in five seconds, then eject on my mark. Code Alpha two nine nine eight five Omega."


    "Affirmative Captain on you mark," came the monotone reply.


    I waited until the creature opened it''s mouth again, "Mark."


    With a thud I felt throughout my body, the fusion reactor core shot down the throat of my enemy, and I started to feel sluggish and cold. I was barely conscious as the power core exploded, which sent bits of monster all over the field. My eyes soon closed and I was now standing ghost-like seeing my armor on the battlefield. A hand grabbed ahold of the back of my neck and with a jerk, I was back in the light speckled dark place.


    "Now that was a heck of a place for you to be, watching your own death and all," said an oddly accented feminine voice. When I turned I saw what at a quick glance, was a young woman. She had long, straight black hair, deep black eyes the whites were red instead. When she smiled at me, I saw two long sharp fangs in place of the two upper canines, the rest of the teeth being smaller versions of them. Her feet were wrapped in what looked likebandages, while her hands were made of bone. When she saw my confusion over her appearance, she smiled again, "Yeah, looks like I couldn''t figure out which undead I wanted to be. It is not my fault tho, my mother is a queen of the undead and ..... Hmmm, I wonder if you can guess who daddy is?"


    "Thanatos, Hades, naw couldn''t be them, oh I know the way my luck has been, Grim Reaper?" I said in a joking manner.


    "Yup, papa Grim, my name is Tara Reaper, and we''ll have you back to your new home in a few seconds." The answer took me by surprise which must have shown, as she backed up a little and looked slightly hurt, but for the most part alone. I sighed at my stupidity, I mean I had nothing against her but she thought I did.


    I shrugged to myself then on an impulse reached out and pulled her in, my lips locked onto hers. A few second later I heard a voice say, "Jack, who is this?"


    "Annabelle, good morning this is Tara Reaper."