"Friendlies zero-five clicks, 12 o'clock; it’s Rain... and someone else..." she hissed as her breath caught.

  His march turned into a sprint; it echoed like the march of a platoon of heavy exosuits. "Where is Embers!?" he detonated.

  The humanoids were now clearly visible, even in his relatively inferior optics. It was their squadmate Rain, smoking a Cuban and laughing at their approach, and a gigantic, female redhead gene-warrior staring blankly into the expanse behind them.

  Her immense size and evident strength were the only characteristics that made her distinguishable from their loathed creators and designated enemies. She was still dwarfed in every possible metric by Geiger, yet it looked as if they had crawled out of the same vat: same shoulder-length fire-red hair, identical warm emerald eyes. Full lips framed an entirely human mouth. Geiger squinted at the sight of her spectacles—was her vision defective? Yet, she carried more than twice the firepower of Embers: a belt-fed 40mm grenade launcher, a 155mm ATGM. Can she use any of this hardware efficiently?

  Rain slow-clapped in Glass’s direction. "Here on time? No warmup this time, Bandage?" He took a slow drag. Glass waved his comment away and shook her head, her breath relaxed. Embers is in the medbay, this is a last-minute replacement, she thought.

  Geiger laid down his HMG and walked towards Rain. He glanced at the female gene warrior, then back to Rain, eyes wide open as if he had seen a nuke inbound.

  Rain pulled two cigars from his rig and tossed one each. Her tongue shot out a meter from her mouth and retreated with the cigar; then lit it with a pitch-black Zippo lighter. "Kinzhal" was written in gold over the skull. Geiger ignored it; the cigar hit the deck.

  "Whatcha did to my poor brother this time, Bandage? Haven’t seen him this fucked since Anchorage." He paced leisurely towards Geiger, picked up the cigar, and placed it in his chest rig.

  "Sucked him dry and made him sprint five clicks hauling a ton." She opened her mouth wide as her long forked tongue danced around the cigar; she exhaled a circle of smoke as she winked at him flatly.

  "That ought to do it," he chuckled. Rain paced towards the elevator, punched the call button, and briefly glanced at his wristwatch, nodding sharply.

  Rain possessed the identical serpentine phenotype as Glass—with short, gray-silver, spiky hair and a much larger, athletic stature. His most characteristic trait was his smile: a mocking scar that declared all existence a cruel, unending jest.

  "The fuck is Embers? And who’s this?" Geiger paced towards the female gene warrior, still tense.

  "Embers bought it; this cute horror is straight out of the gutter."

  "No!! What the...!? What happened!?"

  "Got dragged up to B1 for gene editing; she couldn’t take it... tough end, brother." He closed his eyes, exhaled smoke, and slapped Geiger on the back. Geiger put his massive hand on his and nodded, jaws clenched hard, his other hand balled into a fist.

  "At least, was it fast?" They held each other's forearms. Rain shook his head; his smile disappeared. "I’m sorry, brother; I don’t want to imagine. I’d never want to be in your boots."

  "Means a lot chief. Real." He blinked, his undying smile returning just as quickly.

  "Alright, squad, fall in!" He raised a canteen. "Here is to my girl! Best demolition expert! Blew tanks, bunkers, drones, and anything with a heartbeat. She cooked me off every day! More than once on the best of days! Best times in my shitty existence!" He spilled methanol on the floor.

  "Hear! Hear!" They all raised theirs and poured methanol on the rusty deck together.

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  "To Embers! Deadly, reliable, real! I will miss you, my lethal sister-in-war!" Glass raised a canteen and emptied it.

  Geiger took much longer to speak. He looked at his open palms and then shut them; then he shut his eyes. "Honorable sister, may you find..." He paused and shook his head for a lack of a word. "Respected sister, I will miss you for all my existence; our squad will never be the same!" He drank deep; he felt tears welling up as he emptied his canteen, fighting the urge.

  "I never knew her... may she find peace." The female gene warrior saluted, her voice completely indistinguishable from a human in her early 20s. She spoke Russian laced with a distinct German accent.

  They took out their pistols and aimed at the ceiling; the female warrior mirrored the ritual.

  "Embers!" Geiger’s shout reverberated in the darkness.

  "Never feared, never lied, never retreated, never faltered, never failed!" All in one voice. Gunshots. Brass clinked on the steel floor.

  "Embers!"

  "Sister, mate, reliable comrade in nuclear war!" In unison. Gunshots.

  "Embers!"

  "Retired undefeated!" Rain’s hiss echoed in the dark, rusty expanse.

  Geiger and Glass formed up in a line; they faced away from the elevator, eyes forward towards the rusty darkness. They held hands and closed their eyes; they remembered her. Their new squadmate formed up next to them; her hand reached out and grasped empty air. She stared straight ahead, whispered something in German, and closed her eyes, still lost in thought.

  Rain marched ahead, slammed his foot on the steel, turned 180 degrees to face the squad, and saluted; four fingers of each hand overlapped like the four complementary bases of their manufactured genome. They returned the salute.

  He pulled out a small plastic bag from his chest rig and removed a folded letter. He smelled it: ash, gunpowder, and napalm. He smelled again, his superhuman senses blocking out the background—her sweat, her tears. He cleared his throat and exhaled.

  "If you are reading this, my ass has bought the barn..." He paused; a smile returned to Rain’s face, then Glass’s, but not Geiger’s. "Not much of a barn... but at least it's roach-free..." Rain ripped a cigarette pack open and lit it, taking a long drag.

  "All my shit goes to Rain... You defective bum, make sure you share my Cubans and Marlboros with the crew... Also got some of that pre-war jam for Glass’s bulletholes, and a weird paper book for Giga-Roach... Rain... you were always a pain in the ass... but the right kind of pain... my ass absolutely enjoyed you... move on... keep everyone alive. Glassy... take a breather, keep Giga’s feet on the ground... you know how, sister... Commander... you were synthesized for the wrong age and wrong purpose; it was a bliss to fight on your side... March on, Kinzhal! Nukes and kisses!"

  A happy nuke smoking a cigar and wearing a gene warrior beret was painted on the bottom right of the page. Rain kissed the letter and put it back in his rig, right over his heart. They stood at attention and remembered.

  Feet slammed on the deck. Geiger marched towards Rain; he saluted.

  "We will survive," Geiger thundered. Glass and Rain repeated it with a hiss. The newcomer stood alone.

  "Kinzhal, we march on! End of ceremony." They all saluted. They glanced at the newcomer; her body was there, but her mind was not.

  "Gene-sister!" Geiger rumbled. A second later, her bright emerald eyes locked on his; she saluted. Geiger looked at Rain.

  "Was expecting Embers yesterday... her naked ass was dumped in my cell instead..." he whispered and lit a cigar.

  "A demoralized replacement on the eve of the mission?"

  "Yep, butt-naked, nuked eyes, screaming about a Holgar... or something. Spoke a weird language... didn’t eat." He handed Geiger another cigar and lit it.

  "Did the roaches... force themselves?" Glass hissed.

  "Her body was... I blanketed her up, left her there lying in front of my door... we were both too shot up to talk about anything; heard her sobbing."

  "Transit?"

  "She got up, wore the gear the roaches dropped, and equipped Ember’s weapons, is all. No words."

  "Liability," Glass whispered.

  "Reserve judgment. We assess, decide, and march on... if worst comes... the three of us will do," Geiger rumbled as the palm of one hand went to his hilt and the other over his eyes.

  "You can’t miss a proper warmup, can you, Bandage?"

  "Would rather shred her here than pay for her fuckups on the field... and besides, I haven't gutted something for a month." Her nails shot out; she was still smiling.

  "We’ll assess her suitability thoroughly, methodically. This is a MILOP, not bedroom fun! You almost got Embers killed a year ago at recruitment! Do not indulge this time. I mean it!" He yanked Glass around; her smile died.

  "You love trying to kill my assigned mates, sister. No more fig jam for you!" He placed a palm on her shoulder. "Enough! This is an important task. We test her, assess, avoid vitals, and I repeat: do not dare to indulge!"

  "Yes, Commander," they said in unison.

  Seconds later, the elevator arrived, its doors groaning open. They stashed their artifacts, picked up their gear, stepped in, and headed towards the dial next to the door. Geiger’s eyes shut; his hands moved on their own, united in front of his chest.

  Please! Be capable! I do not want to kill you!

  He did not know the word conscience.