It has been seventh days, a week after the first bomb dropped in Vanier Valley of Yemen.

Inhabited at least four hundred, this valley was a perfect remote place for the elders to stay and spent the remnants of their age until they die peacefully in their bed. But such a luxurious thing didn't exist in this valley anymore, since the blaze of the war reached this land and turned the very soil of once tranquil village to a rampaging war field.

"Get him!" A soldier shouted to his comrades. "Keep firing!"

"But, sir, our ammunition!" Another soldier warned. "We're almost--

"Use it all!" He grabbed the neck of his comrades. "Use everything we have!" The soldier looked upon his camera lenses. The red dots on the screen moving slowly and surely to the north, to their base, the northern mountain of Yemen. "We have to make sure your friend deliver it safely! Got that?"

The soldier's lips went trembled. "I-I can't ... Sir...."

The commander was lost. His subordinates looked in great fear, knowing what would happen exactly to them in next few hours. He looked at that young face, feeling the many things that young man had to leave behind in his homeland to be caught on this war, in this time.

"We will not dead!" The man vowed. "I swear to you, and your parents! All of you, to return all of you home safely! So we would make it! Whatever happen, we would make it today and the day after until this damn war over, you got that, Child?!"

The doubt on that soldier's face gone up a bit. "Yes, Sir!"

"Good." The man nodded, pat the young man's shoulders. "Now, back to your--

The man back stepped, evading a surprise attack than came from above. A man fall among them on the pit. Pitch black dressed, the new soldier calmly stood up on the mud. No one could see his face with that helmet that cover all of his face.

But the soldier looked straightly up to the leader and then swung his razorblade, switched it to blade in an instant.

The young man gaped in awe. Once again, the leader showed some of his skill. He pulled out an explosive bayonet from his belt and threw it at the soldier. It stabbed through his temple. But the soldier remained idled. His face remained calm. As if he was feeling no pain.

Everyone gaped in disbelief at how inhuman their enemies were. Most of them never made any contact with a Maha within this close range. They only watched as Maha butchered their comrades on the frontlines. Now, it was their turn to atone for their cruel ignorance.

Or so they thought until the red buttons on the edge of the bayonet activated, right when that thing still on his temple.

The commander shouted. "Get down!"

Pulp of human's brain washed them in an instant.

Every soldier evaded that surprise in time, leave no one injured, even the closest soldier on his left. Then everyone stood up in awe, staring blankly at the corpse on their feet: the body of their enemy.

"He's so calm...." Someone commented. "Even in his death."

"Yeah, my android had more expression than them,"

"Because they're monsters!" The leader stood up, readied his riggun again. "And as Humans, it is our duty to wipe them off this Earth! This planet belong to us forever!"

Everyone's spirit had been recharged. They cried their reemerged will, full charge. As if they had gotten some kind of clarity.

"Yes, Sir!"

The leader nodded, then kicked the body of his enemy. "Get this thing out of our sight!"

Then everyone dispersed, returned to their respective place of guard, watch their enemy as their commander assigned.

The commander looked at each of his subordinate's pale faces. They had barely eat anything, let alone sleep in a decent bed. They became thinner and thinner each day. It need more and more sedative to save them from shell shock that threaten in every minutes passed.

He knew more than anyone that these weren't faces of soldiers. Those were faces of farmers, miners, and peasants that forced to hold weapons to protect what dear or to atone what lost.

It was all started with the arguments of the governments versus its people. The dying Earth kept taking their dearest. They counted death each day. The land, water, and even air, poisoned Humans. Then, an unknown men came from the sky, from the colonization they never knew, kindly gave them a hand that resulted in this endless war.

"Sir, we lost contact with Delta!"

The Commander swore.

"And we lost Alpha too!"

He pressed the button behind his ears, connecting to the communications channel between their armies in once. "To all soldier, retreat! I repeat, retreat, now!"

[You sounds busy, Lieutenant]

He froze. That wasn't any voice he usually heard in Union or in Yemen. The voice was too clear, too steady, and too calm, contrast to the rampaging sound on its background, too ethereal to be the sound of a man.

[The show has just began, you know? But you already took your leave.] The voice sprayed with strange joyful tone. [You're a good commander, unlike someone I knew.]

Rage burnt his mind. "I will destroy you ... every damn of you monster! I will--

The man across the line snorted. [I heard you managed to kill some of us, Congratulations] He disgusted at how happy and calm this spoke about his comrade's death. As if their lives were nothing to him at all. But if it's them, that was most likely the case. Nothing matter to them but victory. [But I warn you. All good commanders are the same]

His eyes were seeing blood splattered everywhere, like a dropped can of paint. The death showed his scythes before him, took everything alive around him in a second.

All of his soldier laid on the ground, lifelessly. Bathed in their own blood. Their dead eyes fixed on the sky, carved forever with fear on their face. At the center of the death parade, a man with black armored and eagle badges on his shoulder stood still.

The Monster of Alliances.

The black helmet obstructed his sight from seeing any face behind these murders. But the way that man stood, walked slowly towards him, and swung his sword, splattering the blood of his victims so calm, he suggested that whoever behind those helmet was no important. Only a heartless killing doll of Colony.

[A Good Commander won't just stood by and watch while their comrades slashed one by one,] The voice retarded. [Although that young man you face right now is not the commander.]

The man felt his feet colder as the soldier slowly close up the rift between them. Realized that he was too coward to move, he mocked himself, burning all of his mind, body, and soul with rage. He reminded the memories, the mission, and the humanity he defend.

He reached for his riggun, pressed the stock energy button on the edge of it, and point it out to the soldiers. But that monster managed to dodge every single bullet he shot in an inhuman speed. All with only the swing of his blade.

The man realized, the blade was made of Alterium.

Even so, the commander kept shooting. His gun getting heavier each shot. The gun turned hotter. And the man could only hope, that helmet didn't detect anything suspicious from his gun.

"It's only a prototype. The ups didn't even give me a permission to test it for real." He remembered his old acquaintance said. "But if this means victory ... I can only counting on you."

The commander tried his best for not looked or moved his finger near his last knife. For distraction, he took the stunt grenade out and threw that thing to that monster's face. He quickly slid get down to the pile of bodies beneath.

The ringing sound of the grenade echoes in the air, along with its blindfold light.

The man blinded and deaf for not covering ears or eyes from his own stunt grenade, but as a result, he stabbed that monster right on his right foot.

If only, he wasn't vomiting blood afterwards.

The commander take a look on himself, smiles upon the alterium blade that made its way through his belly. He could feel the cold tip of the blade crashed his organs, stabbed to his spine directly. The Human looked up, pointed his another gun to the soldier's face.

Then, he lost his hand.

He screamed in pain, watched over by that soldier who never moved an inch to end his pain.

A monster is a Monster, he thought before smiling. Then, he pulled out a pin from his chest. For the first time, the black helmet moved, like never expected things to happen like this.

"Eat...." The light engulfed the commander. "This!"

***