Farley hated war. Training and preparation seemed fun at the time of enlistment, but now in the thick of it, nothing disgusted him more.
As he cautiously approached his kill, he lamented the fact the the girl he had seen thru his scope just before pulling the trigger would have been the exact kind of girl he would have been so lucky go to the prom with back on the home world.
He wondered if she had gone to her prom or even knew of such a thing here. He imagined a picture of her and the team quarterback setting on the fireplace mantle. He wondered about her parents, whether she had any brothers or sisters, or what her favorite color was.
As he came closer he looked for any signs of life, labored breathing or heaving of her chest, gasping her last breaths of life.
Nothing. She was dead.
There would be no college graduation or wedding day. No white picket fence in the suburbs with kids running in the front yard. Just a transmission to loved ones confirming that she had been KIA while nobly serving the cause.
Farley wondered, what if it had been his sister or girlfriend laying there? Killed by someone from a distant planet he'd never been to, or cared about for that matter. He clenched his jaw as he tasted the bile in his mouth and fought the urge to vomit.
Just then he noticed the clear, green fluid pooling around the corpse and the unmistakable stench of burning metal - pungent and stinging in his nostrils.
He didn't know if he was more relieved or embarrassed by being fooled by his own imagination. "Damn mechanoid... I must be getting tired" he muttered under his breath as he released a salvo of blasts from his pulse rifle to finish the job.
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