Flashing Lights

{|style="width:100%; color:#FFF;"
|valign="top" style="padding:5px;"|
"God, Annika. You're so uptight. I wanna go dance!"
Those were the words that brought the three of them to where they were currently. At the head of a line of young, loud people eager to get into the Kino, the trendiest club in Delscevo. Not that that was really saying much. The city wasn't exactly known for its night life. But, if anyone under the age of thirty in Delscevo wanted to get drunk, go deaf, and maybe even get laid, they'd try to get into the Kino.
Annika had never been, but Katrina had insisted on bringing her with. Dirk, Kat's new boyfriend, was personal friends with one of the bouncers, and had sworn he could get them into the club free of charge. 
Kat turned to face Annika.
"Come on, Anni, don't be so nervous. It'll be great!"
"It had better be," she replied. "We've been in this fucking line for, what, forty-five minutes?"
"That's not that bad. We're almost there now, anyways."
"If it makes you feel any better, the line usually takes like an hour and a half," Dirk added.
"Thanks, Dirk," Annika said with more than a little bit of venom.
Kat wasn't wrong, though. They were nearing the entrance. The group in front of them showed their IDs, entered, and before long, Kat, Dirk, and Annika were up at the front. Finally.
"How many? Three?" the bouncer asked.
Kat and Dirk both nodded and gave a simultaneous "Daja."
"Alright, IDs, please," the bouncer ordered, motioning with his free hand.
Dirk grinned. 
"And by the way, I know Dzenko. I assume we can just give you the IDs and head in?" 
The bouncer stared back at him, blankly, for a few uncomfortable seconds before replying.
"You know Dzenko? And this involves me how, exactly?"
"Dzenko told me he could get us in."
"Dzenko isn't even working tonight, pal. You'll pay like everyone else."
"Aw, what?" Dirk threw his hands up. "Really man? In front of my girl?"
"Yeah, in front of your girl. Now, IDs."
Dirk huffed and pulled his ID from his pocket, and Kat handed hers to him. He started to motion for Annika's, but she was already handing hers to the bouncer. He gave her a polite nod as he took the card and began to look it over.
"Alright, Dzenko's buddy here is paying the full fifteen denars, but since you two girls are retired Defence Forces, that'll get you ten percent off the price." He handed the cards back to their owners as Dirk sighed and reached for his wallet. "What branches?"
"I was in the Territorial Service, just for the two years. I got out right before the Covenant got here, got called up for reserve duty, but didn't see any of the actual fighting."
"Lucky you." The bouncer turned to look at Annika. "And you?"
"I, well," she hesitated, swallowed, and nervously scratched the lower base of her skull. "I was Naval Infantry. Engineer." 
"Shit, badass," the bouncer said, taking Dirk's transaction card and swiping it. "Remind me not to fuck with you. Thanks for your service." He gestured for them to enter, and they did. 
The climate was overwhelming. Warm, uncomfortably warm, with the stench of sweat, alcohol, vomit, and marijuana launching a constant assault on the nostrils. Music blared, an energetic synth accompanied by intense drums and barely comprehensibly singing. Most of all, the place was lit up with all sorts of bright, flashing lights that scattered themselves around the vast room. 
"Isn't this place great, Anni?"
The lights changed colours. Bright blue and green. Bright blue and green.
-----
A bright blue bolt of plasma flew down the purple-coloured metal hallway. More followed. Bright blue and green.
"Close the fucking door!" someone called out. Firearms barked in response to the flashing lights.
Annika turned to the alien door control panel. The simulations they had been able to run before weren't exactly the highest quality. She was scatterbrained even without the loud report of Bandits and MA5s.
"Get that damn door-" A throaty grunt and an audible sizzling interrupted the voice and was closely followed by a loud thud. Annika forced herself to focus on the door panel.
"Fuck, I-" she stopped herself, pressing a button. 
"I got it!" 
The doors closed shut and the firing ceased. She turned towards the others. All but one were still standing.
One of the Gaoans lay on the purplish deck, helmet removed, blood gargling up to his mouth, holding his exposed, scorched innards. Theo had dropped to his knees, biofoam cannister in hand, hastily trying to apply it. But the Gaoan wasn't cooperating, just moaning and moving his hands erratically.
She couldn't even remember the poor bastard's name.
"Annika," the Sergeant called. "Do you have any spare charges? We need to get those planted. Delay those freaks for as long as we can."
The dying man spoke.
"Dios, por favor, por favor," he said.
"Annika?"
"Por favor," he said.
-----
"Annika?"
She turned to meet Kat's gaze.
"Yeah?"
"You OK?"
"Yeah."
"This is great, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, come on, let's hit the bar!"
Annika nodded and followed Kat and Dirk to the bar. It was lit with a neon orange strip light that covered the bar itself and the roof above it. They found a spot to stand near the edge of the bar. Dirk ordered: three fingers of vodka. Annika downed hers quickly.
"Damn, Anni," Dirk chuckled. "Slow down, maybe."
"Didn't you hear the bouncer? She's a real badass," Kat said, joining Dirk in his light laughter. They both finished their own, taking only a few seconds to recover before Kat began to pull on Dirk's arm. "Come on! Let's dance!"
"Alright, alright," he said, grinning. He followed her a few steps away from the bar before Kat stopped.
"You coming with, Anni?"
"No, not yet," she said. "I'm gonna have another drink or two. Come back in a bit and I can join your for your second round of dancing, maybe."
Kat seemed a little disheartened but shrugged and pulled Dirk out into the crowd. They vanished into the pool of moving bodies. Anni ordered another finger of vodka. 
-----
Annika hadn't actually known what she was getting herself into. No one really did. No one really could.
She knew that they were boarding a Covenant cruiser. Last ditch effort to save the planet. They'd breach with C12, fight the ship's skeleton crew, and take control of it. From there, things were foggy, but that would be the "easy part", as Captain Yetka had called it. 
Only a vague mapping of the ship's interior. A general idea of where the ship's bridge was, where its reactor was, where its hangars were. Not a clue about much of anything else.
Annika was with the 13th Combat Engineer Battalion. A fresh-faced 22-year-old. Had just passed selection for the Brigade a few months prior. Her squad was one of those assigned to taking and holding the reactor. 
They were only asking for volunteers. Annika didn't have to go. She could have stayed behind. But she didn't. 
There wasn't much to remember about boarding the cruiser. Jumping from the Prowler. Spinning, spinning, feeling nauseous, staring at the sea of stars because there was nothing else to stare at, spinning, spinning. Blowing a hole through the ship's armour was easy. Single pack of shaped C12, boom, they were in. 
The corridors. The doors. The interior was almost as nauseating as the spinning. An endless series of purple hallways. So little cover. So many corners. 
The squad had met up with a few others. They had all at least lost someone by this point. Maybe about twenty of them, moving in on the reactor. She was with Harold. One of the alien patrols had pinned them in a corridor and had forced them back to try and find another way around. She covered Harri as he pulled back, passing one of the doors. As she turned, one of the shorter ones, the Grunts, leapt out from the indent in the wall and grappled Harri, firing its bright green plasma weapon into his abdomen as it did. She raised her rifle. 
One, two. Three, for good measure. The Grunt fell of off him, but she hadn't been quick enough. 
Harri was on the ground, a mangled mess, almost split in two. She couldn't have done anything. 
Right?
Maybe she could have, but-
-----
"Hey, how's it going?"
She looked up.
"Hi?"
"I'm Karl. Can I get you a drink?"
Annika finished her vodka. She hadn't been keeping track of how many she'd had by this point. 
"Sure."
The man ordered two more vodkas. He was tall, and cute. Maybe. He took the vodka glasses, handing one to her.
"Here you go," he said.
"Thanks. I'm Annika, by the way."
"Good to meet you, Annika. You come here often?"
"No, it's my first time, actually."
"Damn, really? How come?"
"I was the in the service up until earlier this year."
"No shit? So was I! Territorial Defence Service. Coast Guard, actually."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah, man, do I have some stories. I was in during the invasion."
"Wow."
"Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to shoot any of the alien bastards myself, but I was out on the water when they attacked Seventh Gate. We had just been cruising along, listening to the events on the comms, y'know, when this big fucking cruiser shows up out of nowhere..."
At this point, Annika had stopped listening. She watched his face, his lips move, but didn't listen. He was kind of cute, but maybe that was just the vodka, or the way the flashing blue and green lights hit his face. She pretended to listen as she finished the vodka in front of her. He kept going on, and on, about this cruiser. The cruiser.
-----
There were just flashing green plasma bolts behind her. They were scuttling the cruiser now, apparently. She hadn't been able to get many details at that point. There was a hard push out of the reactor room with the aid of their remaining explosive charges, moving to the hangar bays, hoping to get aboard a shuttle in there, if possible. They had had to leave the dead behind. They had chosen to leave the critically wounded behind, as well. Walking wounded struggled, ran, and limped with the rest of them.
Annika had been lucky. She had only received a grazing hit to her armour. The shoulder pad was still scorched by the plasma bolt. 
Now, it was just a mad dash to the hangars as quickly as they could. They didn't know how much time they had before the ship would reenter the atmosphere.
Troopers fell. Some of them were left there, in the corridors. Most were picked up by others if they could. No one stopped for more than a few seconds. 
Another plasma bolt flew at her from the side, this time grazing her helmet. She could feel the heat of it on her scalp. She turned quickly and returned with three shots from her Bandit. One missed, the second hit the Grunt in the arm, the third in the chest. She didn't stop moving. 
"We're near the hangar, now!" someone called out. It might have been one of the Lieutenants. She didn't really know who was in charge at this point. 
He wasn't wrong, though. Before long, they had reached the hangar. Finally. 
It had felt like an hour, but they were finally there.
More importantly, there were still shuttles.
She quickly followed a group aboard one of the weird, U-shaped craft. She grabbed the offered hand of one, and he pulled her up onto a seat before quickly opening fire on a group of aliens now in front of them. The door shut soon after.
She pulled her helmet it off. She knew she wasn't supposed to, the risk of decompression was still there, but she couldn't stand it anymore. It felt claustrophobic. The last run had taken everything from her. Her chest felt heavy, her stomach felt more nauseous than when they had boarded.
She vomited.
"Hey!"
The trooper who had helped her up tried to get her attention. He reached for her helmet and tried to help her put it back on.
She vomited again.
-----
"Hey!"
She had vomited next to the bar. Onto her shoes, and onto Karl's shoes. 
"Hey, what the fuck?"
Karl stepped back. Annika looked up at him.
"Oh... I'm... oh," she stammered.
She spotted Kat and Dirk returning.
"Holy shit, Anni! Anni!" Kat hurried over. Dirk followed. Karl simply stood, a little stunned, and mostly pissed.
"Man, what the fuck? Bitch." He turned and left.
"Anni, what happened? Let's get you to the bathroom." Dirk wrapped his arm around Annika, but the world started to dim. Everything was black, except the bright blue and green lights. Bright blue and green.
"Oh, shit. She's passing out. We need to get her out of here. Dirk, call a..."
Everything faded out, except the bright blue and green lights. Bright blue and green.
Bright blue and green.